Tehran Reza Shah Pahlavi Mummy of ex ruler of ’found’ in construction site | World | News

Pahlavi was the ruler in Iran during World War Two before he was succeeded by his son, Mohammad Reza Pahlav.

He was a controversial character and his reappearance could be a problem for the country’s present Islamic leaders. 

Hassan Khalilabadi, the head of Tehran City Council’s cultural heritage and tourism committee, told the state news agency IRNA that it was a “possibility” that the remains uncovered at a Shiite shrine are those of Reza Pahlavi.

However, a spokesman for the Shah Abdol Azim shrine said the body was not Pahlavi’s, saying: “All the rumours on the social media that claim this mummified body belongs to Reza Shah are false and void of any truth.” 

Constructive workers found the mummified remains when they were working at the Shiite shrine of Abdul Azim and a digger pulling away dirt and debris uncovered the body. 

Pictures of the body have been spread across social media in the country. 

Pahlavi was buried after his death in 1944 but the tomb was blown up by Iranian revolutionaries as they tried to erase evidence of the previous regime. 

His body was never found in the ruins and has been missing for 40 years.

DNA tests will be conducted on the body to find out if it really is that of the former ruler. 

He said: “This will be examined by responsible bodies”. 

Pahlavi was forced from power in 1941 by British and Russian troops and his son took over from him.

The former ruler went into exile to South Africa, where he died in 1944. 

Many people in Iran are fans of the former ruler because of his modernisation programme and his work on freedoms for women. 

His son, Mohammad Reza Shah, became Iran’s last shah before the 1979 Islamic Revolution installed the country’s Shiite-dominated theocracy.

His grandson, the U.S.-based exiled Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi, warned Iran on Twitter: “not to hide anything.”