MAKKAH, 30 November 2006 — A phone number scribbled on a sheet of paper led police to arrest a suspect in connection with the disappearance and apparent homicide of a 45-year-old Indonesian expatriate in Makkah, the Arabic press reported yesterday.
Police received a call about a missing man, whose name was only given as Zubair, and when they went to his home in a predominantly Indonesian neighborhood in Makkah, they found the phone number. Investigators traced the number to an Indonesian woman who reported a dispute with a man who had turned himself in to immigration authorities in hopes of fleeing the country through deportation.
Police were able to intercept the man’s deportation and after interrogating the suspect he confessed to committing the murder, saying he had a dispute with the victim, and implicated three others in the crime.
Hafiz, the father of Zubair, said he has lived in the Kingdom for 35 years and that his son had a wife. The murdered man’s brother, Muhammad, said he thought the killing occurred because his brother was believed to be cooperating with authorities in arresting overstayers and undocumented migrants.
