Son of Iran shah kills himself in US

Alireza Pahlavi

BOSTON, (Reuters) – Prince Alireza Pahlavi, younger  son of the late Shah of Iran, committed suicide yesterday in  Boston, according to his brother.

Alireza Pahlavi

“It is with immense grief that we would like to inform our  compatriots of the passing away of Prince Alireza Pahlavi,”  Reza Pahlavi, the Shah’s older son, said on his website,  rezapahlavi.org.

Pahlavi, 44, took his life early yesterday at his Boston  home “plunging his family and friends into great sorrow,” the  note said.

It said he struggled for years to overcome depression over  the fate of Iran and the loss of his father and sister.

Boston police were investigating a suspected suicide that  occurred shortly after 2 a.m. local time. Boston media reported  that Pahlavi shot himself in his apartment in the city’s South  End neighbourhood.

The Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi was overthrown by the  Iranian Revolution in 1979 and died in Egypt a year later. His  daughter Leila died in a London hotel room in 2001 of a drug  overdose.