One of the men convicted of the murder of Norwegian Maren Ueland and Danish Louisa Vesterager Jespersen in Morocco has been found dead in prison.
In a statement, the prison service states that Abderrahim Khayali took his own life, writes Arab News.
He was found in his cell on Tuesday.
Khayali was the first to be arrested for the double murder in Morocco in 2018. He was arrested in Marrakech just hours after the two women were found.
Ueland and Vesterager Jespersen were found murdered near the village of Imlil in the Atlas Mountains in Morocco on 17 December 2018. The two young women were students at the University of Southeast Norway in Bø in Telemark and were hiking in the Atlas Mountains.
24 men were charged in connection with the murders.
A total of four people have been sentenced to death, including Khayali, while 20 others were sentenced to prison terms of between five and 30 years.
Arab News writes that Khayali left the other men before the murders were committed, but that he was found guilty of helping the men escape.
Khayali was initially sentenced to life in prison, but the sentence was later commuted to death after he appealed the case. However, Morocco has not executed death row inmates since 1993.
The day after the women were found in 2018, it was published on video on Twitter where the four convicted swore allegiance to IS.
