Pubdate: 11 April 1999 Source: Sunday Times (UK) Copyright: 1999 Times Newspapers Ltd. Contact: http://www.sunday-times.co.uk/ Author: Graham Duffill and Simon Brooke HEROIN KILLED SHEIKH'S SON THE eldest son of the ruler of the Emirate state of Sharjah died at the family's English country estate after taking heroin and alcohol, an investigation into his death has revealed. Sheikh Mohammed bin Sultan Al Qasimi was found dead in bed at midday last Saturday when domestic staff tried to raise him. The 24-year-old, who had recently graduated as an officer in the Gulf state's police force, appeared to have choked on his vomit. However, tests carried out by pathologist Dr Iain West were also understood to have revealed that the prince had taken a potentially lethal amount of heroin, according to police sources. The cause of death will not only embarrass his family - Dr Sheikh Sultan bin Mohammed Al Qasimi still insists on a total alcohol ban in the country - but highlights a growing problem with the children of the oil-state rulers. 'Young boys grow up with mobile phones, expensive cars and more money than they can ever spend," said one resident. Heroin is widely available in the Emirates via Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan. "The biggest users are not western expatriates, as the United Arab Emirates government would like its residents to believe, but its own indigenous population," said a Sharjah doctor. "We know there are an increasing number of opium overdose cases but they control the media and will not admit it." Mohammed spent large parts of his youth in England and was educated at a private school in the West Country before being sent to America to study business. He was the product of the sheikh's first marriage, but his father divorced his mother when the boy was four and then married a German, Sonja Ohlig. He divorced her after 12 years without her knowledge and subsequently married a Palestinian, Sheika Jawaher, in 1991. The family made frequent visits to Britain, occupying five or six suites at the London Marriott hotel in Grosvenor Place, but in 1989 the sheikh paid UKP3m for the country estate in East Sussex of the late property tycoon Lord Samuel of Wych Cross. "I heard Sultan is very upset and sent him my condolences," said a friend of the family. "But as soon as we heard the news everyone in Sharjah asked the same question: was it a car crash, Aids or drugs? That's what you expect." - --- MAP posted-by: Derek Rea