BEIRUT: The information department of the Lebanese Internal Security Forces (ISF) has arrested a male suspected of killing British Embassy employee, Rebecca Dykes.
The arrest took place within 48 hours of Dykes’ body being found by the side of a highway in Mount Lebanon early on Saturday.
The suspect, a taxi driver for Uber, reportedly picked Dykes up at midnight on Friday from the Gemmayze district of Beirut, where she had been having dinner with friends.
The suspect has been named as Tariq H., a native of Beirut, born in 1988.
“Dykes was used to requesting Uber’s services,” a security source told Arab News. “The driver she called on the night of the tragedy was supposed to drive her to her house in Ashrafieh, which was only a few minutes from where she was dining, but instead, he took her to an area between Dekwaneh and Nabaa, where he parked his car and (sexually assaulted) her.
“He then strangled her and took her body to the Metn expressway to conceal his crime, and he dumped her belongings in a waste dump,” he said.
The security source explained that the ISF information department tracked the suspect through Dykes’ mobile phone, which showed that the last call she made was to Uber, and revealed the driver’s name and photo.
“The suspect’s car was also captured on roadway surveillance cameras,” the source said.
Security forces arrested the suspect in an underground hideout in the Ashrafieh district in Beirut.
According to the same security source, “the suspect has a history of drug abuse.”
Interior Minister Nohad Machnouk called the British Ambassador to Lebanon, Hugo Shorter, and offered his condolences.
Machnouk said the suspect’s motive was purely criminal, not political. He personally followed up on the matter with ISF Director-General Maj. Gen. Imad Othman, who called President Michel Aoun and Prime Minister Saad Hariri to brief them on the outcome of the investigation.
UK Ambassador Shorter visited Othman in the General Security Directorate and hailed the efforts of the information department and the speed with which the suspect was arrested.
On Sunday night, Shorter issued a statement saying how shocked and saddened the entire staff of the embassy was by Dykes’ death.
Her family said in a statement: “We are devastated by the loss of our beloved Rebecca. We are doing all we can to understand what happened. We request that the media respect our privacy.”
Suspect arrested in murder of British diplomat in Beirut
Suspect arrested in murder of British diplomat in Beirut
Algeria inaugurates strategic railway to giant Sahara mine
- The mine is expected to produce 4 million tons per year during the initial phase, with production projected to triple to 12 million tons per year by 2030
- The project is financed by the Algerian state and partly built by a Chinese consortium
ALGEIRS: Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune on Sunday inaugurated a nearly 1,000-kilometer (621-mile) desert railway to transport iron ore from a giant mine, a project he called one of the biggest in the country’s history.
The line will bring iron ore from the Gara Djebilet deposit in the south to the city of Bechar located 950 kilometers north, to be taken to a steel production plant near Oran further north.
The project is financed by the Algerian state and partly built by a Chinese consortium.
During the inauguration, Tebboune described it as “one of the largest strategic projects in the history of independent Algeria.”
This project aims to increase Algeria’s iron ore extraction capacity, as the country aspires to become one of Africa’s leading steel producers.
The iron ore deposit is also seen as a key driver of Algeria’s economic diversification as it seeks to reduce its reliance on hydrocarbons, according to experts.
President Tebboune attended an inauguration ceremony in Bechar, welcoming the first passenger train from Tindouf in southern Algeria and sending toward the north a first charge of iron ore, according to footage broadcast on national television.
The mine is expected to produce 4 million tons per year during the initial phase, with production projected to triple to 12 million tons per year by 2030, according to estimates by the state-owned Feraal Group, which manages the site.
It is then expected to reach 50 million tons per year in the long term, it said.
The start of operations at the mine will allow Algeria to drastically reduce its iron ore imports and save $1.2 billion per year, according to Algerian media.
