ExxonMobil executive shot dead ‘assassination-style’ in Brussels
October 29, 2012 6 Comments
By IAN ALLEN | intelNews.org |
A senior British executive of American multinational oil and gas corporation ExxonMobil has been killed in an alleged “assassination-style” shooting in Belgium. Nicholas Mockford, 60, was a technical support manager for ExxonMobil Chemicals, Europe, specializing in intermediate technology, also known as alternative energy generation. He was shot dead at 10:00 in the evening as he was leaving an Italian restaurant on Rue de Beyseghem, in Neder-over-Heembeek, a leafy suburb of Belgian capital Brussels, where he lived with his Belgian wife and three children from a previous marriage. British newspaper The Daily Telegraph, which published news of the incident last week, said that Mr. Mockford was killed on October 14. But the paper said a “judicial instruction” had been imposed on the case by the investigating judge, which amounted to a news blackout. According to reports, Mr. Mockford was with his wife Mary when he was shot in the attack, which witnesses said happened “very quickly”. The couple was allegedly seen walking across the street from the restaurant to their car, when all of a sudden several shots were fired. The Telegraph said that Mr. Mockford’s wife was left at the scene of the crime “covered in blood” and crying for help. Two men were apparently seen running away from the area where the shooting took place, carrying motorcycle crash helmets. Soon afterwards Mr. Mockford died on his way to the hospital, said the paper. The Belgian prosecutor’s office told The Telegraph reporter that, due to the “judicial instruction” issued by the judge, it could provide no explanation or further details of the crime. But the paper spoke to an unnamed family member, who claimed that Mr. Mockford had been “killed in a professional hit”. In a subsequent article published on Saturday, The Telegraph said Belgian detectives believed that the British oil executive may have been the victim of a “nervous criminal” who experienced a “violent rage” after being confronted by Mr. Mockford. Initially, the fact that the victim appeared to receive “a coup de grace shot to the upper body as he lay helpless” had caused the police to suspect non-theft motives in Mr. Mockford’s killing. The investigation into the case continues.
intelNews.org 
Inspector Poirot: “The gentleman is not the man he appears to be”.
Is killing someone execution style the low-price standard, does making it look like a robbery gone wrong or a crazy person cost more? Self inflicted injury or suicide of course being the most expensive?
The killing of him as leaving a restaurant sounds like a mob hit, the kind the mob wants others to know about. Certainly is not covert in any sense of the word. The coup de grace shot could be (my amateur guess) either a signature or a psycho who has seen to many crime movies.
Why did they put a gag order on the execution of a high-level executive? This sounds like a business related professional hit. I read about this the day after it happened. I wonder why you guys are only running this story now? Does the gag order extend to your website as well?
@Casey — we don’t speak French, and as far as we know the Telegraph story is the first one to appear in the English speaking media. If anyone out there is aware of any English-speaking media having covered this story before the Telegraph got hold of it, please let us know. [IA]
I remember when Gary Webb the whistleblower on the CIA cocaine running operation shot himself in the head twice,both fatal shots,this is more like the assinations of Iranian scientists by Mossad and MI6.
There was a story about a week or two before about another business man found killed in the woods somwhere in western Europe. The news didn;t identify what company he worked for that I can remember. Related? But someone wanted people to know that this guy was killed.