Lebanon court sentences man to death in UK woman’s death

BEIRUT – Lebanon’s national news agency says a criminal court has sentenced a man to death in the case of a British woman who was raped and killed in Beirut nearly two years ago.

The National News Agency said Tarek Houshi, a local Uber driver, was sentenced Friday in the death of Rebecca Dykes. It wasn’t immediately clear what crime Houshi was convicted of. The sentence can be appealed.

Dykes worked at the U.K. Embassy with the Department for International Development. She had been strangled with a rope and was suspected of being sexually assaulted in December 2017. She was last seen leaving a bar in the Gemayzeh district of Beirut.

The driver, who authorities said at the time had a criminal record, was arrested two days later.