Ex-Tehran mayor found guilty of killing wife, sentenced to death

Speaking at a press conference on Tuesday, Iran’s Judiciary spokesman Gholam-Hossein Esmaili said that the court had convicted Najafi of two of the three charges against him, including premeditated murder, battery and possession of an illegal firearm.

The court, he added, had established premeditated murder and passed the execution sentence given an appeal by the family of the victim.

The defendant had also been given two years in jail for possession of an illegal firearm, Easmaili pointed out.

He further said that the sentence is not yet final and can be appealed at the supreme court.

Ex-Tehran mayor goes on trial over wife’s killingFormer mayor of Tehran, Mohammad Ali Najafi, has gone on trial over the murder of his wife.

On May 28, Najafi turned himself in confessed to fatally shooting his second wife Mitra Ostad at their home in Tehran the same day.

Ostad was found dead with a couple of bullets in her chest. Her 13-year-old boy was home when the police and journalists arrived at the scene.

Najafi was elected as the mayor of Tehran in August 2017, but resigned in April 2018 over health problems. Soon after the resignation, his wife announced their marriage in a post on her Instagram account.