By: Ali Omar
Egyptian authorities announced Friday that the bodies of two missing Swiss nationals were found buried in the garden of their Hurghada villa. The couple, who lived in Egypt for a number of years, was reported missing by their son ten days before the bodies were discovered.
Authorities in Hurghada, a resort town 450 kilometres southeast of Cairo, interrogated the couple’s security guard regarding his relationship to the incident. Reports claim that he was found with a number of the couple’s possessions and was subsequently arrested.
The guard, whose name has not been released, implicated two others in the crime, which appears to have been a robbery gone awry.
AFP quoted a Hurghada hospital official as saying that the bodies, which were buried for an unknown period of time, “arrived at the morgue in a complete state of putrescence”.
The Swiss foreign ministry confirmed the murders but declined to give further details.
On 16 August, two days after interim president Adly Mansour declared a month-long state of emergency, the Swiss foreign ministry released a statement urging its citizens not to travel to Egypt. The statement cited ongoing violence and urged Swiss nationals currently living and working in Egypt to remain informed about the unfolding political situation.
The report also cited the possibility of terrorist attacks across the entire country.
