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Iranwire – Three young teenagers are among the main suspects in last month’s murder of a renowned artist couple, Dariush Mehrjui and Vahideh Mohammadi-Far, the Etemad newspaper reported.
In its report on November 22, Etemad quoted an informed source as saying that two suspects named Dawood and Iskandar are aged 14 or 15.
A third suspect named Mirweis is no more than 15 years old, it added.
The three teenagers and the fourth suspect in the case are held in Ghezelhesar prison in Karaj, near Tehran, according to the report.
Mehrjui and Mohammadi-Far were found stabbed to death in mid-October at their home in Karaj. Mehrjui, 83, was known as a co-founder of Iranian cinema’s new wave in the early 1970s.
The killings caused shock and outrage among Iranians, with many of them drawing parallels with political assassinations that have rocked the country over the past decades.
Forty days after the killings, the narratives presented by state-run media outlets contain numerous ambiguities and contradictions.
The judiciary has identified the gardener of Mehrjui and Mohammadi-Far as the primary suspect in the case.
It announced on November 21 that the indictments against the four suspects will be issued within two weeks.
Initially, a person named Karim was reported to be the main gardener at the villa, but Etemad reported that Mirweis was the main gardener.
Four suspects were named in the case’s information: Karim, Mirweis, Dawood and Iskander.
It cited “hostility, financial demand and theft” as the motives for the killings.
However, Dawood and Iskandar are teenagers with no meaningful connection with the assassinated couple.
Etemad reported that Mashreq media identified one of the defendants as Dawood, Mirwais’ younger brother. However, the newspaper said that “Dawood does not have a brother named Mirwais.”
According to a report published by the Mashregh News website, the only media outlet to have interviewed the accused, Karim, the house’s gardener, is the “mastermind” of the crime.
Etemad quoted an informed source as saying that Mirwais “was their janitor and the gardener at Mehrjui’s villa two years ago, but due to a complaint from Mehrjui and his wife, he was evicted from the Zibadasht villa.”
The newspaper’s source said that after Mirwais was fired, he rented a house in a nearby city.
Mashregh News previously reported that Mirwais “has a daughter who was sick the night before the incident, but it seems that revenge against Mehrjui was so important to Mirwais that on the day of the crime, he took his daughter to the doctor and quickly returned to the crime scene.”
Amid the conflicting narratives surrounding the killings, Manoush Manouchehri, the lawyer of Mehrjui’s daughter, issued a statement through the ISNA news agency.
In the statement, Manouchehri called on the media to “refrain from publishing any news that has not been approved by [the family’s] lawyers, including the identification of the murderer or possible murderers.”
The daughter of the murdered couple, Muna Mehrjui, wrote on Instagram: “So far, none of the evidence or clues surrounding the crime have been examined by us. In our opinion, the murderer will remain unknown until all aspects have been examined.”
