Killer of British diplomat in Lebanon arrested

BEIRUT: Lebanese security forces have arrested a Lebanese taxi driver for killing Rebecca Dykes, a British woman who worked at the British Embassy in Beirut and was found dead on the Metn Expressway on Saturday Morning.
The arrest was confirmed by the Lebanese National News Agency (NNA) correspondent. “The Information Branch of the Internal Security Forces managed to arrest the killer. He was identified as Tarek H., a taxi driver,” said the news agency.
The agency quoted its correspondent as saying that “Tareq had picked up Dykes on Friday evening from Beirut’s Gemmayzeh district where she was on a night out. He drove her from Ashrafieh to the Metn Expressway where he attempted to rape her. He then strangled her with a rope and threw her body away.”
The NNA correspondent said that the Information Branch managed to identify and arrest the killer — who admitted to the crime — after following his car on the Traffic Management Center’s road monitoring cameras between Ashrafieh and Nahr Al-Mot area.
According to a source quoted by Reuters, “the motive was purely criminal, not political.”
Dykes had worked at the British Embassy for the Department for International Development, her LinkedIn page said.
British ambassador to Lebanon Hugo Shorter said on Sunday: “The whole embassy is deeply shocked, saddened by this news.”
Dykes’ family said in a statement issued by Britain’s Foreign Ministry: “We are devastated by the loss of our beloved Rebecca. We are doing all we can to understand what happened.”