Iran’s Supreme Court has upheld the death sentences and additional punishments for those convicted in the murders of filmmaker Dariush Mehrjui and his wife, Vahideh Mohammadifar.
The primary defendant, identified as Karim, received two death sentences for the double murder.
Other defendants were sentenced to prison terms ranging from one to twenty years for charges including attempted murder, breaking and entering, and armed robbery, in addition to 74 lashes each.
Mehrjui’s children and Mohammadifar’s parents had requested the death penalty through the Alborz Province Criminal Court.
The defendants initially confessed to the killings but later recanted in court.
In October 2024, lawyer Manoush Manouchehri suggested that a mastermind might be behind the murders, claiming the defendants lacked sufficient motive.
The judiciary later rejected this theory, stating that a personal dispute with Mehrjui motivated the crime.
Mehrjui, a prominent filmmaker, and Mohammadifar, a screenwriter, were killed in their villa in Karaj in October 2023.
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