Colleagues pay tribute to Commission official and wife murdered in Morocco

A European Commission official and his wife were stabbed to death in their home in Morocco on Sunday (17 September), only three weeks after arriving in the country.

The murder of Alessandro Missir di Lusignano, 39, and his wife Arianne Lagasse de Locht, 35, apparently during a robbery, left four young children orphaned.

Colleagues this week paid tribute to Missir di Lusignano, who had just been appointed head of the political and economic section at the Commission’s delegation in Rabat, the capital of Morocco.

He had previously been a vital part of the Commission team working on Turkey’s negotiations for EU membership.

Missir di Lusignano, who had dual Belgian and Italian nationality, joined the Commission in 1991 as a trainee in the competition department. After stints working on transport and in the secretariat-general, he was posted in 1997 to head the political section at the Commission’s delegation in Warsaw, working on the country’s preparations for enlargement. In 2001 he returned to work for DG Enlargement on Turkey.

A devout Roman Catholic, Missir di Lusignano came from a family of Christian Dragomen - advisers and translators to Ottoman rulers - originating from Izmir in western Anatolia. Like his father, Livio, who also worked for the Commission, he spoke fluent Turkish.

Manuela Riccio, who joined the Turkey team four months after Missir di Lusignano, said that he was valued for his expertise and knowledge of the country.

"He was a point of reference," she said, describing him as "witty, mild mannered…and extremely cultivated".

"He had a great thirst for knowledge and a very deep knowledge of Turkey," she said.

Safaa Kaddiouia, who had just begun working with Missir di Lusignano at the Commission’s delegation in Rabat, said that he had been "very enthusiastic about the work there is to do in Morocco".

External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner said the attack, thought to be the first murder of a Commission official serving abroad, was horrific. Officials from the Commission’s external relations and administrations departments went out to Rabat on Monday (18 September) to review security arrangements. Rabat had been designated a posting with a low level of risk. The houses of Commission staff are normally guarded, but the robbery took place at a villa which was provided by the Commission while the family searched for a more permanent home.

The four children, twin boys aged four, a girl aged eight, and a son aged ten, were in the house at the time of the attack. The eldest son alerted a guard in the morning.

The children described only one attacker, although Rabat police have not ruled out the involvement of more than one person.

On Tuesday (20 September) a 34-year-old man was arrested after being found behind the wheel of the couple’s stolen Peugeot car. Moroccan police said he had confessed to the murders.

The funeral of the couple is expected to be held in Brussels on Saturday or Monday.

A European Commission official and his wife were stabbed to death in their home in Morocco on Sunday (17 September), only three weeks after arriving in the country.