Moroccan diplomat found `murdered` in South Africa

USPA News - A Moroccan diplomat was found dead at his residence in the South African city of Pretoria on Tuesday, Moroccan officials said, calling the death an apparent murder. It was not immediately clear whether the incident had any relation to his work.

The diplomat was found dead on Tuesday morning at a guesthouse in the Monument Park suburb of Pretoria, a city in Gauteng province and South Africa`s administrative capital. Morocco`s foreign ministry identified the victim as Fatmi Noureddine, the officer in charge of consular affairs at the Moroccan Embassy in Pretoria. "A member of the diplomatic staff of the Embassy of the Kingdom of Morocco in Pretoria, South Africa, was found dead at his home on Tuesday, Oct. 7th, 2014," the foreign ministry said in a brief statement. "The administrative and legal procedures are underway in collaboration with the South African authorities." Morocco`s state-run Maghreb Arab Presse (MAP) news agency said Noureddine was believed to be the victim of a murder, but the exact circumstances of the killing were not yet clear. The agency said the diplomat was living alone in the apartment, where Noureddine`s body was found in a pool of blood. "The police are very cautious. It has to be a robbery. He did not turn up for work at the normal time, which seemed strange because he was always on time. His phone was off," an unnamed diplomat told the AFP news agency. The official said colleagues went to Noureddine`s residence and, upon climbing the stairs, found him in a pool of blood. A spokesman for the South African Police Service (SAPS) did not immediately return a request for comment.