PRINCESS LEYLA PAHLAVI DIED OF RARE DISEASE
PARIS 11 June (IPS) Princess Leyla Pahlavi, 31, the youngest child of the
late Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and Empress Farah of Iran died Sunday.
"It brings me enormous pain and deep sorrow to announce the tragic passing away of my beloved sister Princess Leyla Pahlavi after a lengthy illness", Mr. Reza Pahlavi, the elder son of the Shah, who was overthrown by the Islamic revolution in 1979, said in a communiqué released by his office in nearby Falls Church, Virginia.
Mr. Pahlavi was giving a press conference, commenting on the Iranian presidential elections when he was informed about the tragic death of her young sister.
She was the last of the couple’s four children, coming after Reza, the Crown Prince, Princess Farahnaz and Prince Alireza.
Though the laconic statement gave no details about the reason for her death, but i sources close to the family said she was found dead in a hotel in London.
They said that the young Princess was suffering from the rare disease ME (Myalogic Encephalomyelitis) and had attempted to suicide recently, due to "excessive depression".
"She had been living in a simple and unassuming manner for a while in a central London hotel, devoting most of her time to Iranian arts and poetry", one source said, asking for anonymity.
Accompanied by a few friends and relatives, her body was transferred to Wellington Hospital for further examination by the Coroner and would be flown to Paris, where she used to live, Thursday, to be put to rest in the Passy cemetery, where her grand mother Farideh Diba was buried a few months ago.
There was no word so far from Mrs. Farah Diba, but sources said she was in Paris when the news reached her.
[In a statement about the re-election of Hojjatoleslam Mohammad Khatami, Mr. Pahlavi said the brave Iranian people have once again rejected the present theocracy that has "exposed to the world its ugly, dark face".
[He disputed the statistics provided by the regime’s propaganda machine "fed to foreign media" and said even if one is to believe these "misleading figures", yet the presidential "farcical selection" showed that more than one third of the Iranians refused to participate in the "parody", adding that the "third force" that is made of the young Iranians have started what he described as "civic disobedience" aimed at "changing the regime by peaceful means".] ENDS LEYLA PAHLAVI 11601