Princess' doctor faces investigation

Princess Leila was found dead in a London hotel

A doctor who prescribed sleeping tablets to the Shah of Iran's daughter before she died is to be investigated by Home Office officials.

Princess Leila Pahlavi, 31, was found dead in her west London hotel room on 10 June this year, having taken a fatal drugs overdose.

I have concerns about the way the doctor prescribed and started treating a patient he had not seen

John Gerrard
Home Office drugs inspector

An inquest into her death heard how GP, Dr Mangad Iqbal, prescribed the princess 270 tablets of the so-called "date rape" drug Rohypnol and 130 barbiturates before he had even met her.

Recording a verdict of death from non-dependent drug abuse, Westminster coroner Dr Paul Knapman ordered a Home Office investigation into Dr Iqbal's practices.

Depression

The inquest was told that Dr Iqbal, from the Brompton Medical Centre, west London, first prescribed the barbiturate Seconal for the princess in July 1999.

He gave her another prescription in September of the same year, although he still had not met her.

The first time the doctor and the princess, who had a long history of psychological problems, came face-to-face was in December 1999 when she refused to answer questions about her medical history or have a blood test, Dr Iqbal told the inquest.

At that appointment Dr Iqbal gave her another prescription for barbiturates followed 20 days later by another, the inquest was told.

The doctor continued to prescribe the princess drugs in early 2001 and said she showed no signs of drug addiction.

But he told the inquest that after she had visited him for an appointment in May 2001 several prescriptions had gone missing from his desk and had never been traced.

Concerns

Mr John Gerrard, senior inspector with the Home Office's drug inspectorate, told the inquest: "I have concerns about the way the doctor prescribed and started treating a patient he had not seen.

"Whether that is unprofessional or unethical is a matter for the GMC."

Princess Leila was the youngest of the late Shah of Iran's five children, and the fourth by his third wife.

Her family fled Iran in 1979 after the Islamic revolution and settled in America after the Shah's death from cancer in 1980.

Princess Leila, who was unmarried, is reported to have spent much of the year staying at the Leonard Hotel, west London, where her body was discovered, paying £450 a night for her favourite suite.