The son of an Emir in the United Arab Emirates, UAE, Sheikh Khalid bin Sultan Al Qasimi, is dead. A well-known meth user who often hosted days-long se
The son of an Emir in the United Arab Emirates, UAE, Sheikh Khalid bin Sultan Al Qasimi, is dead. A well-known meth user who often hosted days-long sex parties, was found dead inside his £8million Knightsbridge penthouse on Monday at age 39 after throwing what sources described as a drug-fuelled orgy.
‘It is suspected that Sheikh Khalid may have died suddenly as a result of taking drugs. As well as the police inquiry, an urgent internal probe has been ordered and staff have been ordered to keep quiet,’ a source said.
Workers for his Qasimi Homme menswear brand said that Khalid regularly hosted parties complete with high-class prostitutes, and that it was common knowledge he fuelled himself with methamphetamine.
The Westminster coroner’s office said a toxicology tests had been carried out during a post mortem, that took place before his body was repatriated. However, the results ‘may not be known for another two months’ and so far no date has been set for an inquest.
Khalid has since been laid to rest in the UAE city of Sharjah, which his father Sheikh Dr Sultan bin Muhammad Al Qasimi rules over.
A staff member claimed that on several occasions Khalid threw a chair and other furniture across the office following a weekend of partying at his Knightsbridge residence. He said that staff had expressed concerns about this amongst themselves but were too frightened to take it up with Khalid himself, fearing that they might get sacked.
Just before he was laid to rest
The staff member added: ‘Khalid could become very unpredictable and we always knew to stay away from him after one of his famous parties. He was the boss so we couldn’t really complain to him.
“It was mainly his friends and business associates who were invited to the drug-fuelled parties, never us. We just heard about what happened at them.”
Three days of national mourning which began across the UAE on Tuesday, with flags flying at half-mast will end today. No arrests have been made in the ‘unexplained’ tragedy, as detectives are describing it.
The prince was born in Sharjah but moved to the UK aged nine where he was educated at the prestigious Tonbridge School in Kent. He studied French and Spanish at Imperial College London before moving on to an architectural degree and art school Central Saint Martins, where he studied fashion and launched his menswear label Qasimi Homme in 2008. Its flagship UK store opened in Soho that year, with his clothes now stocked across the globe and paraded at fashion weeks in London, Paris and the Middle East.
His father, Sultan bin Muhammad Al Qasimi came into power in 1972. He has so far, lost two children. His eldest son, Sheikh Mohammed Bin Sultan Al Qasimi, died of a heroin overdose aged 24 in 1999. He was reportedly found on his bathroom floor at home in East Grinstead surrounded by syringes filled with drug.
