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Two envoys' families robbed
07/04/2008 20:00 - (SA)
Pretoria - An Egyptian diplomat's family living in Groenkloof was held up at gunpoint and robbed at the weekend, said police on Monday.
In another robbery, Greek defence attaché Efsthathios Soukiou and his children were also attacked on Saturday, according to a report in The Star, when two men armed with a gun and a screwdriver entered their Long Street home in Pretoria.
The attacks follow several others on diplomats last year.
Four robbers entered the Egyptian diplomat's house in Groenkloof early on Saturday morning after holding up the guard.
They held up the family and robbed them of household goods and jewellery, then fled.
"We don't know how they escaped - whether they used a car or what," said Captain Lungelo Dlamini.
"Later on Saturday night, police on the R21 stopped a vehicle going towards OR Tambo International Airport and discovered it was the same group that had robbed the family," he said.
The four men, along with a fifth in the vehicle, were arrested for being in possession of stolen property. Police recovered jewellery, a TV and a decoder.
The men were expected to appear in court soon.
No one was hurt during the robbery.
Others attacked
Last year, the Tanzanian high commissioner Emmanuel Mwambulukutu was beaten unconscious and several of his guests were assaulted and robbed at his farewell dinner in Pretoria.
Also last year, Nadir Khan Jadoon, the press and cultural counsellor of the Pakistani high commission was attacked at his Groenkloof home.
In October 2007, Quonchung Nguyen, a Vietnamese embassy official was shot in the stomach by robbers who entered his home in the embassy compound.
And a month later, French defence attaché Captain Denis Fabre, his wife and two young children were held up by armed robbers who looted their Sandton home and drove off in the family car, loaded with their valuables.
Just over a year ago, gangsters robbed six US embassy officials after breaking into the home of an embassy employee in Waterkloof Ridge, Pretoria.
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