Mauritian Chellen died of asphyxia |23 August 2014

Mauritian Harmon Chellen died of asphyxia conducive to drowning, the police have said.

In a communiqué released yesterday, the police said the result of postmortem carried out on Thursday afternoon on the body of Mr Chellen showed that he died of asphyxia conducive to drowning.

Mr Chellen’s body was found floating in the sea near L’Islette at Port Glaud in the afternoon of Monday August 18, 2014.

The incident happened while the police had started to investigate an alleged sexual assault case reported earlier in the day of which he was named as suspect. The reported incident is said to have taken place at a tourism establishment the previous night at Port Launay.

Mr Chellen’s body was repatriated back to his native home of Mauritius yesterday. In the meantime, the police are continuing with their investigation in the alleged sexual assault case and the drowning incident.

Mr Chellen was the director of the Mauritius Tourism Academy known as ‘Ecole Hotélière Sir Gaetan Duval’.

The 52-year-old arrived in Seychelles last Wednesday and the following day (Thursday August 14) he was the guest of honour at the Seychelles Tourism Academy’s graduation ceremony for a group of students who have completed their advanced diploma in hospitality management.

Mr Chellen was married and had two children.

Meanwhile, the lawyer of the Mauritius Tourism Academy, Veda Baloomoody, is currently in the country to investigate what exactly happened to Mr Chellen.

Lawyer Baloomoody arrived in Seychelles on Wednesday evening accompanied by Mr Chellen’s brother.