THE five year old search for the murderer of a leading Belgian politician appears to have made a major step forward with the arrest of a prime suspect and the discovery of what police think are the weapons used in the crime.
Andre Cools, patriarch of the socialist party in Wallonia, Belgium's French speaking southern half, was shot on July 18, 1991.
A judicial source said late yesterday that army engineers had dredged up two revolvers from a canal near Liege.
Investigators have never discovered the reasons for Cools's assassination, but their search led them to discover rampant corruption in another affair - the purchase of Agusta military helicopters in the late 1980s.
Belgian media have speculated that the apparent breakthrough in the Cools investigation seemed to have been brought about by the investigation into the paedophile sex, kid napping and murder ring which has shocked Belgium over the past three weeks.
Justice Minister Stefaan De Clerck said on Friday "an important breakthrough" had been made in the Cools affair, but added that there was "no direct link" between the two cases. The army engineers who found the two revolvers were led there by Mr Domenico Castellino, one of four men arrested on Friday in connection with the Cools investigation.
Mr Castellino was one of four men arrested on Friday in connection with the Cools investigation. Another one was Mr Richard Taxquet, former personal secretary of Mr Alain Van der Biest, a minister in the Wallonia government who was himself arrested yesterday morning.
