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Irishman shot in Riyadh was warned about religious views
Anthony Higgins, the Irishman shot dead in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, had been threatened in the past over his failure to acknowledge local customs.
The civil engineer, who had worked in Saudi Arabia for more than two decades, had been warned by local businessmen to play down Catholicism in an Islamic country, friends said this weekend. It is also claimed that Higgins was told to respect the Saudi way of life and its culture. Higgins, 59, who was described as a religious man, had told friends about the threats but they had not thought his life was in danger. Higgins, from Galway, was shot by two gunmen who burst into his office in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, on Tuesday. He was shot four times in the head and the chest with silenced machine pistols.
| That's called "civil, well-reasoned discourse" in Muslim countries... |
Other members of staff at Rocky for Trade and Construction, where Higgins worked, were not aware of the attack until his body was found slumped behind his desk. He was initially thought to be the victim of an attack by Al Qaeda, but Saudi authorities now suggest a criminal motive is likely. "Although there have been rumours the attack was linked to Al Qaeda, police are also looking at the possibility that it was a criminal act unrelated to terrorism," said a statement from the Saudi embassy in London. Arab News reported sources saying that the execution-style killing was the work of criminals rather than the continuation of a terror campaign against Western expatriates.
| Bumping him off for his religion would seem to jump the criminal category and into terrorism... |
Posted by: TS(vice girl) 2004-08-10 |
