The legal counsel of daily newspaper Reporte Diario de la Economía, Yisel Soares, reported on Monday night that the newspaper vice-president Pierre Fould Gerges, 48, was murdered in a gas station located in Chuao, east Caracas.

Gerges left on 5:30 p.m. the head offices located in Las Mercedes in a car property of his brother Tannous. On arriving in the gas station, he was shot 17 times between his neck and chest, said Soares.

"While he was in the gas station approximately at 6:00 p.m. a bike arrived; the carrier went down, shot Fould and fled," reported the Baruta police.

The lawyer said that in June 2007, the newspaper editor, Tannous Gerges, had been threatened to death.

The continued threats had been denounced at the courts. "We had filed also a complaint in June 2007 with the Scientific, Penal and Criminology Investigation Agency (Cicpc)," the legal counsel added.