Puerto Rico ? A Guantanamo detainee whose death has been blamed on suicide apparently died of asphyxiation, a Yemeni official said Saturday.

The preliminary conclusion, which suggests the prisoner strangled himself, offers the first details about the death of Mohammad Ahmed Abdullah Saleh Al Hanashi, who was found unresponsive inside a psychiatric ward.

The disclosure also raises questions about how a prisoner could have choked himself to death inside the closely watched ward.

“The Yemeni government is still awaiting the autopsy report and the investigation report, but for the time being we are sticking with the scenario the U.S. government has stated,” Mohammed Albasha, a spokesman for the embassy in Washington, told The Associated Press.