JEDDAH, 7 April 2006 — A Saudi businessman, his Egyptian wife and their maid were found dead in their flat in Cairo, a local Arabic newspaper reported yesterday.

Police identified the bodies found on Sunday in a rented flat in the Madinat Salam district of Cairo as those of Nassir Hassan Al-Mae, a 62-year-old Saudi, his Egyptian wife Huda Ibrahim Ahmad, 35, and Nana, a 22-year-old maid whose nationality has yet to be ascertained.

The body of the man was found in the corridor while his wife’s body was found near the bedroom. Their throats were slit. Authorities have not made any arrests in the triple homicide, according to Al-Watan newspaper.

“We will soon arrest the culprits,” said an officer who did not want to be identified. “All those who had any contact with the family or used to visit the flat are being interrogated,” he said.

The janitor, laundryman, vegetable grocer, butcher, and electricity bill collector, and all other service providers at the building were being questioned by the police, he pointed out.

The police did not rule out robbery as the motive for the crime, in spite of finding SR3,000, $1,500 and jewelry in the apartment. They also suspect revenge may be the motive behind the murders.

The officer said that the investigators found that the family had a tendency to keep large sums of cash in the apartment.

“The robber or robbers might have left the small amount deliberately to mislead the investigators,” the officer said.

The police said there were no signs that somebody broke into the house, and that at least one person entered the flat with a key. Authorities have questioned the Egyptian woman’s brother who was invited by her sister at a lunch on Saturday. He said when he visited the house he found nobody there.

Al-Mae married the Egyptian woman 15 years ago and she used to stay with him in the Kingdom where he had a business, the officer said.

According to neighbors, the couple was on very good terms with the neighbors.

The forensic report showed that the man and wife were killed with a knife in their bedroom and the maid with the same weapon that was found in the bathroom, the newspaper said.

Neighbors had told the police that they had heard strange noises at night but could not locate its source. The passports of the three are missing. Police have put out an all-points bulletin to find the legal documents.