Radiofarda – Iran’s Supreme Court has upheld the death sentence for an Iranian man accused of murdering an American woman during a robbery in 2012.
The official Iran Daily identified the accused May 18 by his first name, Siamak.
According to Iran, Siamak, twenty-year-old at the time, plotted along with his 21-year-old accomplice, Akbar, to steal a car belonging to an American citizen, Teresa Virginia, in February 2012.
Mother of three, Teresa Virginia, had traveled to Iran to visit her Iranian husband’s relatives.
Immediately after strangling the American citizen, Siamak and Akbar took Teresa’s body to the deserts outside the capital city, Tehran, and left it there.
Teresa’s Iranian husband filed a lawsuit that triggered an investigation, followed by a search for the culprits.
With the help of CCTV recordings that showed Siamak and Akbar at a petrol station with Teresa’s car, police were able to arrest the two suspects.
As it was proven during court proceedings that Teresa had converted to Islam, the suspects were sentenced to death. Based on the Article 310 of the Islamic Penal Code, if a Muslim kills a non-Muslim, the death penalty does not apply.
The court of Appeals upheld the sentences, but the Islamic Republic’s Supreme Court only upheld the verdict against Siamak, and sentenced his accomplice, Akbar, to life.
Siamak’s death penalty has been delivered to the Implementation of Sentences Branch of Tehran’s Criminal Court.