New evidence on Aitken arms link

Fresh evidence has emerged of the extent of Jonathan Aitken's involvement in BMARC, the company at the centre of the arms-to-Iran affair.

The material, obtained by the Independent, reveals that Mr Aitken, who resigned last week as Chief Secretary to the Treasury, attended more meetings and received more board papers referring to the contract to supply guns to Iran than had previously been thought.

Company papers show that BMARC, where Mr Aitken was a non-executive director, changed its name to Astra Defence Systems Limited in June 1989. Board minutes and reports of Astra Defence Systems mention a possible successor to Project Lisi, the order for the shipment of naval cannons to Iran via Singapore in defiance of a United Nations ban, although they do not describe it as such.

Last March, when the Independent revealed Mr Aitken's directorship of BMARC, an arms manufacturer, and the company's contract to sell guns to Iran, he said he had only attended three board meetings. The contract, he said, was not discussed and he could not recall the order.

In fact, on 26 July 1989, Mr Aitken attended a meeting of the Astra Defence Systems board at 6 St James's Place in London. Item 2 on the agenda says the directors approved the minutes of their last meeting on 27 June 1989. Those minutes included at Item 5.6: "Major sales opportunities - Lisi II; 1990 order could come forward into 1989." This was a reference to a possible follow-up to the original Lisi. In that order, Singapore agreed to purchase 140 naval guns - even though it had few ships capable of carrying them. Lisi II was to comprise guns and ammunition for armoured vehicles, again for Singapore.

Item 5.7 of the minutes says: "Most likely' sources of large orders this year - Kuwait, Brunei, Abu Dhabi, Qatar, Mexico, Singapore, Lisi II."

On 3 October 1989, Mr Aitken is listed as having been present at an Astra Defence Systems board meeting where John Sellens, a fellow director, presented a schedule of "Major Sales Opportunities." These included Lisi II. Prior to board meetings, directors were circulated with the minutes from the previous meeting and a monthly board report listing orders, including Lisi.

Last month, Michael Heseltine, then President of the Board of Trade, stunned MPs when he announced there were "grounds for believing that the final destination of naval cannon made by BMARC could well have been Iran". Mr Heseltine has launched a Whitehall-wide trawl of documents relating to defence exports by BMARC and other companies to Singapore. A Commons select committee is also investigating Project Lisi and the abuse of export controls.

Richard Sykes, Mr Aitken's solicitor, said last night that Mr Aitken had attended two Astra Defence Systems board meetings. "Mr Aitken asked his secretary to check the number of BMARC board meetings he had attended. She found three. If she had looked for the name Astra Defence Systems she would have found two more.

"There has been no attempt to hide his attendance at any board meeting," Mr Sykes said.