SANTIAGO, Dec. 6 (Xinhuanet) -- Chile's former president Augusto Pinochet was questioned on Tuesday over the 1992 death of an army colonel who was linked to an illegal arms sale to Croatia, local media reported.

    The reports said federal judge Claudio Pavez visited Pinochet, who was under house arrest for another case, to take the former dictator's statement on the death of Colonel Gerardo Huber.

    The new investigation aims to find out the true cause of Huber's death, who had been thought to commit suicide, and the role that Pinochet played in the illegal arms deal, which took place in December 1991 when he was still the head of the Chilean army. Pinochet resigned as president in 1990.

    Several other soldiers and friends of Huber's family will also be questioned for the case, the reports said.

    Huber was at that time in charge of purchasing in the logistics command of the army and was also involved in the illegal sale. He was arrested in January 1992 but disappeared mysteriously in the same month. His body was later found in a river.

    Pinochet was put under house arrest on Nov. 23 on charges of connection with Operation Colombo, in which 119 of his political opponents were killed.

    Although he has been arrested for several times for accusations ranging from plotting the murder of opposition activists to illicit use of public funds, Pinochet has not yet been put on trial because of health problems. Enditem