Casablanca- Moroccan police have arrested a suspect in the murder of lawmaker Abdellatif Mirdas in front of his home in the city of Casablanca.

Mirdas, 53, Member of Parliament for the liberal Constitutional Union Party, was shot three times in his car in the well-off southern district of Californie on Tuesday night, according to a police statement carried by MAP state news agency.

Hit in the head, he succumbed to his injuries shortly afterwards.

The lawmaker represented the Ben Ahmed district 60 kilometers south of Casablanca.

A 27-year-old man suspected of being linked to the murder was arrested, the police statement said. It said he had threatened Mirdas over a “personal dispute of a private nature”.

“This individual with a criminal record is suspected of an alleged link to the armed homicide that killed a Member of Parliament Tuesday night,” the statement added.

The arrest took place at the residence of the suspect in Ben Ahmed. Police seized from the house hunting rifles and bullets that are similar to the ones found at the crime scene.

A source told Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper that the suspect is the son of a Constitutional Union Party official in Ben Ahmed.

According to the source, the party official had close ties to Mirdas but their friendship turned sour over a relationship between his daughter and the slain lawmaker.

The suspect had previously threatened Mirdas over the MP’s relationship with his sister, the source said.