The individual named Hamdi Tarfaoui, of the Azerguiyine tribe, reported missing since 18 May in confusing circumstances, was killed by strangulation by one of his companions during a debauched evening, it was indicated by a police source.

According to the prefectural service of the judicial police of Laâyoune, the investigation conducted by the police services, supported by experts from the scientific and technical police, demonstrated that the victim was strangled inside a room he was renting, by one of his companions, due to personal disputes.

The accused, once his crime was accomplished, mutilated the victim's body, before transporting it to his home and burying it in the patio, the same source adds.

The investigations conducted by the police led to the arrest of the person accused of this murder, originally from Laâyoune, according to the same source, which specifies that this crime followed "heated exchanges" between the interested parties "in relation to personal behaviour".

These investigations also made it possible to exhume the victim's body and seize several of his effects and personal objects.

The Laâyoune police services thus denied the rumours that had been spread about the causes of the victim's disappearance and assure that the accused has been placed in police custody on instructions from the public prosecutor's office, pending being presented to the justice system after the investigation is closed. For his part, the public prosecutor at the Laâyoune Court of Appeal confirmed, on Wednesday evening, that Hamdi Tarfaoui was the "victim of a murder" and specified that the alleged murderer will be referred to the justice system "as soon as the investigation is finished".