He had been strangled and beaten to death. A 33-year-old man was taken into custody on Tuesday evening but has not yet been charged.
It has been widely reported in the British press that the arrested is a minor Saudi prince who had employed the victim. However, the British police have not named or charged the man.
Under British law he can be held in custody no later than 10 p.m. local time on Thursday. He then has to be charged or released. The police said they know the identity of the victim but would not release details until formal identification had taken place. They were trying to locate his next of kin.
“Police were called in reponse to reports of the body of a man found in a third-floor room at the Landmark Hotel in Marylebone Road at 16:50 local time on Monday. Officers and paramedics from the London Ambulance Service attended the address and the man was pronounced dead at the scene,” an official statement said.
The cause of death was given as “manual compression of the neck and head injury.” A Saudi Embassy official said that the matter was in the hands of the police. The Landmark, next to London’s Marylebone station, is in an area popular with many Arab visitors to the city.
