Son of conservative Iranian politician dies in Dubai

Reuters: The son of a prominent Iranian conservative, who had been estranged from his father in the past and criticised the government, has been found dead in a Dubai hotel, a police official and an Iranian website said on Sunday.

DUBAI (Reuters) – The son of a prominent Iranian conservative, who had been estranged from his father in the past and criticised the government, has been found dead in a Dubai hotel, a police official and an Iranian website said on Sunday.

Police are investigating the death of Ahmad Rezaie, 31, as a possible suicide, and a coroner’s report was expected on Monday, said a Dubai police official who declined to be named.

But the Tabnak website, close to Rezaie’s father Mohsen Rezaie, said the death was “suspect”, without elaborating.

Ahmad Rezaie had left for the United States in 1998, where he had openly criticised his father and Iran’s Islamic government, before returning home five years later. He had left Iran again in 2009.

Mohsen Rezaie, a former commander of the elite Revolutionary Guards, is the secretary of Iran’s Expediency Council, a powerful body which advises Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. He had run against President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the 2009 presidential election.

(Reporting by Isabel Coles and Firouz Sedarat)