Iranian courts have sentenced a man to the death penalty for killing director Dariush Mehrjui and his wife in October, official media announced on Monday.
A big name in Iranian cinema, Dariush Mehrjui was stabbed to death at the age of 83 on October 15 with his wife Vahideh Mohammadifar, a 54-year-old screenwriter, at their home in Karaj, west of Tehran.
“The main accused was sentenced according to the law of retaliation”
, used in Iran in murder cases and linked to the desire of the victim's family to see the death penalty applied, indicated the head of justice of the province d'Alborz, Hossein Fazeli-Harikandi, quoted by Mizan Online, the justice agency.
The judicial authority reported in January the involvement of four men, including the couple's former gardener, considered the main accused.
Also read: Iranian filmmaker Dariush Mehrjui allegedly killed by his former gardener
The latter had entered the villa with his accomplices and struck then stabbed Dariush Mehrjui in the neck while he was watching television.
His wife had been killed in her bedroom.
Two of the defendants were sentenced to a total of 36 years in prison each and a fourth man to eight years, according to Mizan, who said the verdicts could be appealed.
Dariush Mehrjui was a director, producer and screenwriter for six decades during which he faced censorship before and after the Islamic Revolution of 1979. Born December 8, 1939 in Tehran, he studied philosophy in the United States before return to Iran where he launched a literary magazine and in 1966 released his first film,
Diamond 33
, a parody of the James Bond films.
He then made films with a strong social dimension, including
La Vache
(1969),
Monsieur le naïf
(1970) or
Le Cycle
(1974),
Les Tenants
(1987) and
Hamoun
(1990).
After the Islamic revolution of 1979, Dariush Mehrjui spent a few years in France, where he made the docufiction
Le Voyage au pays de Rimbaud
.