ARMS TRAFFIC : Iraqi Weapon Deals May Figure in Briton’s Death

What seemed to be the suicide of a British journalist visiting Chile three years ago has turned into a murder mystery with suspected links to international arms traffickers and Iraqi secret agents.

Jonathan Moyle, 28, was found hanged in the closet of a downtown Santiago hotel room on March 31, 1990. Moyle, editor of a British publication called Helicopter Defense World, was here to attend an aviation exposition sponsored by the Chilean air force.

Chilean police said his death was a suicide, but an investigating judge later ruled it a homicide. And the investigation continues.

Santiago lawyer Jorge Trivino is representing Moyle’s father in the court proceedings. Trivino has hired private investigators to work on the case and personally traveled to England seeking evidence late last year.

“I believe that Jonathan was working with vital information about international arms trafficking and that the time came when it was necessary to silence him, because the interests involved in this are very powerful,” Trivino said in an interview.

Although much remains to be investigated, he said he thinks the murder is related to arms smuggling to Iraq. Santiago newspapers have speculated that Moyle, a former helicopter pilot in the Royal Air Force, had learned of secret helicopter sales to Iraq in violation of international agreements.

A helicopter pilot named Paul Bennett, now jailed in Germany on fraud charges, has sent word to Moyle’s father “that he has very important information on his son’s case,” Trivino said. He said a defector from Mukhabarat, the Iraqi intelligence service, has told a British writer named Adel Derwish that Moyle’s name was on Mukhabarat “black lists.” The defector, known only as Ahmed, “is frankly scared and prefers to remain anonymous,” Trivino said.

The attorney has requested Alejandro Solis, the criminal court judge investigating the case, to pursue those leads through diplomatic channels and Interpol, the international police network. Solis has begun the procedure to do so. He also has asked the Chilean Foreign Ministry to request secret documents from Britain’s intelligence service, the Foreign Office and a House of Commons investigation of arms trafficking that Trivino says will be useful for solving the Moyle mystery.

In Chile, Solis has investigated possible connections between Moyle and Cardoen Industries, a company that had sold bombs and other weapons to Iraq. Cardoen also was believed to have offered combat helicopters to Baghdad.

A hotel maid has said she saw Moyle in a violent argument with someone before his death. The maid was shown Raul Montecinos, a former public relations officer for Cardoen, but she said Montecinos was not the other person in the argument.

Carlos Cardoen, owner of Cardoen Industries, has denied any connection between his company and Moyle’s death.

Trivino said the murder was planned to look like a suicide. A strong tranquilizer was found in Moyle’s stomach, although he was not known to take any kind of medicine. “Someone made him ingest it” before hanging Moyle, Trivino asserted.

British Foreign Secretary Douglas Hurd, on a January trip to Chile, expressed hope the Moyle mystery will be solved. But that isn’t an easy order, Trivino said. “It is an almost perfect crime.”