Three retired Chilean generals and two army officers were arrested on Tuesday on suspicion of involvement in the attempted cover-up of the murder of Colonel Gerard Huber.
According to the Chilean newspaper La Tercera, a witness said that Colonel Huber, director of procurement in an army weapons factory, had delivered written documents on the sale of weapons to a third person who was to pass them on to a British journalist.
"In the second stage of our investigation, which is beginning today, we will look for the perpetrator (...) or gather evidence against the persons involved in the murder," Judge Pavez told the daily La Nacion.
"The interception of the arms shipment to Croatia in Budapest in 1991 exposed the organisation for illegal shipments," La Tercera wrote. The newspaper quoted Judge Pavez as saying that Huber's murder was planned "in order to eliminate the officer who knew about illegal operations involving military personnel."
Lawyer Maria Ines Horvitz said there was sufficient circumstantial evidence to indicate that the murder had been carried out by the intelligence service BIE (Batallion de inteligencia) on the orders of General Victor Lizarraga and Major Manuel Provis.
Since the BIE was directly responsible to the commander-in-chief of the armed forces, Horvitz said some elements suggested the direct responsibility of the then Chilean President, General Augusto Pinochet.
The arrested generals Eugenio Covarrubia, Victor Lizarraga and Carlos Krumm, Colonel Julio Munoz and Major Manuel Provis are charged with attempting to cover up the murder of Huber, who disappeared three weeks after giving a deposition on the sale of 11 tonnes of weapons to Croatia in 1991 in violation of a United Nations arms embargo.
A month after he disappeared Huber's body was found in the Maipo river with a bullet to his head.