Rabat: The Crown Attorney at Rabat Court of Appeal has dismissed as unfounded social media claims that a Malian journalist died suspiciously in a Rabat hotel over his support for an Arab team in the Africa Cup of Nations.

According to Agence Marocaine De Presse, police were alerted on January 14 by a private medical team to the death of Soumaré Mohamed Cheick Tidiane, a Malian journalist, at his Rabat residence. He had entered Morocco on January 2 via Mohammed V International Airport.

The Public Prosecution subsequently ordered a judicial investigation before officers of the judicial police, scientific and technical police services went to the apartment of the deceased located in one of Rabat’s neighborhoods.

Upon their arrival at the apartment, judicial police officers found the Consul of Mali and one of the deceased’s friends at the scene, also a Malian journalist accredited to cover the AFCON football tournament, the same source states, adding that the latter said he had received a text message from the
deceased alerting him to his serious health condition.

As a response, the friend went to the deceased’s residence only to find the door was locked from the inside, and called an ambulance. At the scene, paramedics forced open the apartment door and discovered the body of the deceased in the bedroom. The body bore no signs of violence, the statement continues.

The paramedics also found medication, along with personal belongings and documents near the body, which was transferred to the morgue after an autopsy, the same source reports, noting that the results concluded that the death was natural, caused by a pulmonary embolism linked to a sharp increase in blood pressure.