The photo of the “suicide note” quickly spread on social media, garnering the empathy of Moroccans.
Rabat – The Wilaya (prefecture) of Fez-Meknes has denied the authenticity of an alleged suicide note that has circulated on social networks and Moroccan news outlets since the evening of June 12.
The photo shows a piece of cardboard with text reading: “I am dying of hunger. There is no support from the state. Liars. Hypocrites.”
The text, written in dialectal Arabic, was the suicide note of a man in his fifties who ended his life on June 11, several news reports alleged.
The reports also alleged that the brownish marks that appear on the cardboard were drops of the man’s blood.
The photo quickly spread on social media, garnering the empathy of Moroccans who expressed their anger at the incident.
In a statement issued on June 13, the Wilaya of Fez-Meknes confirmed that a man who matches the description of the news reports had committed suicide. However, it denied the alleged reasons of his suicide and the veracity of the suicide note.
According to the statement, the deceased did not make any request to benefit from the financial support allocated for families in precarious situations due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Local authorities moved to the scene of the incident as soon as they received notifications from the man’s neighbors, but they did not find any message similar to the one that spread on the internet.
Neither the deceased, nor his relatives, have made any requests to local authorities for financial assistance, the statement reiterated.
Security services are set to launch an investigation to identify the people or entities behind deliberately promoting the fake photo and to determine the crimes they may have committed.
