Belgium probes into murder of Exxon oil giant exec

PanARMENIAN.Net - Belgian prosecutors are investigating the murder of a British oil executive shot and killed in front of his wife as they walked to their car after dinner at an Italian restaurant in Brussels, Reuters said.

Nicholas Mockford, who worked for U.S. oil giant ExxonMobil, was shot at least twice on October 14 after a Sunday evening meal, but prosecutors declined to say if they were investigating the case as a possible contract killing.

Belgian media earlier reported police believed Mockford had been killed in a failed car hijacking, though the couple's Lexus sports utility vehicle had not been taken after the shooting.

Brussels prosecutors said they were not prepared to comment further on the details or circumstances of the case until the perpetrators were caught.

ExxonMobil in Belgium said that Mockford, 59, had worked as a department head at its office in Machelen, on the outskirts of Brussels.

"Of course we are all shocked," a company spokesman said. "There is no indication that the incident was work-related."

No one was willing to comment when Reuters called Mockford's family home in Grimbergen, an affluent town just north of Brussels.