The police officer said the body, with a slit left wrist, was found late Friday by hotel staff in an 18th floor room.

There was no evidence of an attack and the death is being investigated as a suicide, said the officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief media.

Dubai police did not provide further details on the man's identity, but the Iranian website Tabnak, which is close to conservative Mohsen Rezaei, said that the politician's son Ahmad Rezaei, 31, died in Dubai's Gloria Hotel. It called the death "suspicious," but offered no other details. A coroner's report is expected on Monday.

Prior to his return to Iran in 2005, Ahmad Rezaei had lived in the United States and openly criticized Tehran's rulers. This put his father, a conservative closely associated with religious hard-liners, in an awkward political position.

Mohsen Rezaei is secretary of Iran's powerful Expediency Council, an advisory body to Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.