PARIS, July 3 (UPI) -- French investigators said the eldest son of the president of Chad was killed with a fire extinguisher in his suburban Paris apartment house.
The body of Brahim Deby, the 27-year-old son of Idriss Deby, was discovered in a stairway leading to an underground parking lot, The Times of London reported Tuesday.
An autopsy revealed he had died of asphyxiation, most likely from white powder sprayed from a fire extinguisher that was found near his body.
Diplomats in Chad said they don't think there is a political motive for the killing, however, The Times said rebels fighting a guerrilla war in the eastern part of the African nation view the slaying as a setback for the Zaghawa ruling clan.
"(Brahim Deby) is at the root of all the frustration. He used to slap government ministers; senior Chadian officials were humiliated by Deby's son," a spokesman for the rebel Union of Forces for Democracy and Development, told The Times.
"They had to leave the regime; go into the bush. They chose the military option instead of being humiliated inside Chad."
Brahim Deby worked for his father as an adviser and was training to replace him until last June when he was convicted in Paris on drug and firearms charges and sentenced to a six-month suspended term.
