TEHRAN: Iranian police arrested the “fundamental killer” of director Dariush Mehrjui who was stabbed to dying alongside his spouse on the weekend, Tasnim information company reported on Thursday.
The 83-year-old, related to the Iranian new wave of cinema, and his spouse Vahideh Mohammadifar, a 54-year-old screenwriter, had been killed at their residence in Karaj, west of Tehran, on Saturday.
“The principle killer who was amongst these arrested by the police was recognized and confirmed” throughout preliminary investigations, Tasnim stated, citing the police.
“Interrogations are nonetheless ongoing to establish the accomplices and hidden angles of this homicide.”
Police have arrested 10 folks over the killings, the judiciary’s Mizan On-line web site stated Tuesday, with out offering additional particulars.
Distinguished figures from Iran’s movie trade joined a whole lot of mourners Wednesday for the funeral of Mehrjui and his spouse, amongst them the administrators Jafar Panahi and Massoud Kimiai.
Inside Minister Ahmad Vahidi has dominated out any “hyperlink between the homicide of Mehrjui and the serial assassinations” of dissident intellectuals in November 1998 dedicated by the nation’s secret service.
The 1998 crimes had been attributed by the federal government to “uncontrolled components” from the intelligence ministry, who had been sentenced to jail phrases of as much as life.
Mehrjui was finest identified for his 1969 metaphorical drama “The Cow” in addition to his 1990 darkish comedy “Hamoun” exhibiting 24 hours within the lifetime of an mental laid low with divorce and psychological anxieties.
The couple had been laid to relaxation on Thursday within the artists’ part of the Behesht-e Zahra cemetery in southern Tehran, in line with state information company IRNA.