An Egyptian twenty-two-year old driver is being held in custody for four days over charges of killing a 54-year-old Sri Lankan maid who worked in Egypt after a love affair had transpired between them.
The suspect, Mahmud R, admitted during interrogations by Giza prosecutors the details of the story which ended with the maid’s murder.
The suspect and the maid worked for a former police officer who resided in the Fifth Settlement during which an affair took place between them, according to the suspect. He asked for permission from his family to marry the victim and travel with her to Sri Lanka, but the family refused.
The victim and the suspect left their work and the latter attempted to cut communication with the maid who insisted to meet with him as usual in a rented apartment in Cairo’s Shubra al-Kheima area.
The maid told the suspect’s brother she was pregnant and threatened to disgrace his family and to resort to the Sri Lankan Embassy in Cairo.
According to the suspect’s confessions, he then contacted the maid and told her that his family pressured him to get engaged to a girl from his hometown in Sohag governorate.
The victim continued to threaten him, so he asked to meet her. The suspect convinced the maid that he was going to marry her and took her to the regional road in Giza where he stabbed her in her neck before dragging her on the roadside and pouring gasoline on her body trying to set fire to it.
His attempt failed as a vehicle passed by the scene of the incident upon which he tried to escape.
The security authorities arrested the suspect in the city of Abu Simbel in Aswan as he was driving the microbus used in the crime. The mobile phone of the victim and a bladed weapon were found in his possession.
Prosecutors ordered the suspect to be remanded in custody for four days and he was charged with murder and possessing a bladed weapon.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
