CAIRO – Egyptian authorities investigating the murder of Athens-Macedonian News Agency (ANA) journalist and foreign correspondent Nikolaos Katsikas on Tuesday announced the arrest of a food delivery courier as a suspect, according to a report in the Egyptian newspaper “Ahram”.

The paper cites a judicial source saying that the motive for the murder is believed to be robbery. Apparently the suspect worked in a restaurant and knew the victim.

Egyptian authorities have now given permission for the burial of the journalist’s body. Katsikas was found dead with multiple stab wounds in his apartment in Cairo on Saturday.

A member of the Athens journalists’ union, he worked in Egypt as a correspondent for the ANA in Cairo since 2016, while he also worked for the public broadcaster ERT, the Cyprus News Agency and Cyprus television channel RIK.

Commenting on Tuesday, government spokesperson Yiannis Economou expressed his condolences for the journalist’s death and said that Greek consular authorities are in contact with Egyptian authorities to investigate “this sorrowful incident”.