RIYADH: Sri Lankan Ambassador to the Kingdom Abdul Ageed Mohamed Marleen was found dead in his hotel room in Sanaa where he was attending a regional conference on Tuesday.
Marleen, 73, was in the Yemeni capital to attend a meeting of the Indian Ocean Rim-Association for Regional Cooperation that started on Sunday.
Manisha Gunasekera, who was representing the Sri Lankan Foreign Ministry at the conference, said Marleen did not turn up for a session on Tuesday morning and his prolonged absence prompted the authorities to open his room with the help of Sanaa police. “They found him dead in his bed,” said Gunasekera.
Officials in Sanaa said Marleen died in his sleep due to natural causes.
Hussein Bhaila, a Sri Lankan deputy minister who arrived in Sanaa this morning, told Arab News he formally identified Marleen’s body at a morgue. He said arrangements were being made by the Foreign Ministry to take the body to Colombo according to the wishes of Marleen’s family.
Sabarullah Khan, deputy chief of mission at the Sri Lankan Embassy in Riyadh, flew to Sanaa yesterday afternoon to oversee the repatriation of the body. The body is expected to arrive in Colombo by evening on a flight from Sanaa via Dubai.
Marleen’s wife, Fatima, left for Colombo last night by SriLankan Airlines to attend the funeral. Marleen is survived by a son, Shahran (San Francisco), and three daughters, Sheroon (Brisbane), and Shezoon and Shemoon (London).
Abdul Latif Mohammed Lafeer, Sri Lankan consul general in Jeddah, said the death was an irreparable loss to the Sri Lankan community.
Fareeda Wahab, principal of the Sri Lankan International School in Jeddah, described the death as shocking news for the community. “He was a perfect gentleman who was dedicated to his work and treated all alike irrespective of their status,” she said. The school will hold a special assembly to mourn Marleen’s death.
The Sri Lankan Embassy has started a condolence book that will be open until Tuesday. The Sri Lankan Expatriates Society in Riyadh will hold a condolence meeting at the embassy at 6:30 p.m. tomorrow. The Sri Lankan Consulate in Jeddah will hold a similar meeting on Saturday evening.
Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama said he was saddened to learn of Marleen’s untimely demise. “Marleen served Sri Lanka with great distinction as our envoy in Saudi Arabia. He was a highly respected and much loved personality both among his colleagues in the diplomatic fraternity and the 550,000-strong Sri Lankan community in the Kingdom,” he said.
“Since his appointment as our ambassador to Saudi Arabia, he made significant endeavors to build bridges between the two countries and peoples. Only last month, Ambassador Marleen founded the Sri Lanka-Saudi Arabia Friendship Society.”
Marleen, a prominent Colombo-based lawyer with 40 years experience, assumed duties as ambassador in Riyadh in March last year.
