UPDATE - Opposition MP shot dead in Morocco

*UPDATES WITH NSD STATEMENT

By Khalid Majdoub

RABAT, Morocco (AA) - An opposition lawmaker who was shot dead Tuesday in western Morocco appears to have been killed for personal reasons, according to Morocco’s National Security Directorate (NSD).

Abdellatif Merdass, an MP for Morocco’s opposition Constitutional Union party, was gunned down late Tuesday outside his Casablanca home, Abdellah Ferdous, a party official, told Anadolu Agency.

Ferdous said the motives for the MP’s murder were unknown.

The Moroccan authorities, meanwhile, have detained one person suspected of killing the parliamentarian.

“A 27-year-old individual has been detained in relation to the assassination,” NSD said in a Wednesday statement.

“According to preliminary investigations, the crime was committed by a resident of Morocco’s northern city of Ibnu Ahmed,” the statement read.

“The suspect had previously threatened the victim owing to a personal dispute,” it added.

Founded by then Prime Minister Maati Bouabid in 1983, the Constitutional Union is a “liberal conservative” party aligned with the Moroccan monarchy.