ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — Former Mayor of Tehran Mohammad Ali Najafi was in custody on Tuesday after confessing to shooting his wife to death in an upper class neighborhood of the capital, Tehran prosecutor Mohammad Shahriari told Iranian media.
Mitra Ostad, 36, was shot multiple times and her body was found in the early hours of Tuesday morning in an apartment in the wealthy Saadat Abad neighborhood of northern Tehran. She was the second wife of the former mayor. Initially the Tehran prosecutor told reporters that Najafi was not a suspect because he was not “at the scene of the crime.”
However Shahriari confirmed on Tuesday evening that Mohammad Ali Najafi a reformist politician and a confidant of the current President Hassan Rouhani, “confessed” to the killing and provided “family disputes” as the reason behind the murder.
“As the family rows increased, I became a bit angry, I pulled out a gun, she was going to take a path and I followed her,” Najafi told Iran tv on Tuesday night.
“I showed her the gun to scare her and said ‘do you want to end this row or not?’
She panicked and... she threw herself at me, the gun was loaded... she lost her life.”
It is very rare to see such incidents in northern Tehran, where many of the country’s politicians and businessmen live.
Najafi, 69, served as the mayor of a Tehran only for eight months until April 2018 when his marriage to Mitra caused controversy. He was criticized by hard-liners for marrying Mitra although polygamy is legal in the country.
The hard-liners also criticized Najafi for attending a ceremony where young girls were dancing. However, he said his resignation as mayor of Tehran was due to health issues.
When Najafi’s second marriage was publicized, the hard-liners accused the couple of having relationship outside marriage but they refuted the allegations.
He held office at Iranian Education Ministry from 1988 to 1997, then became the head of the Budget and Planning Organization until 2000, according to Tehran Times.
Before becoming the mayor of Tehran he said that he did not belong to any political group and would stay away from politics during his tenure, wrote the newspaper.
Najafi serves as Vice President to President Rouhani as head of cultural heritage and tourism Organisation.
“I showed her the gun to scare her and said ‘do you want to end this row or not?’
She panicked and... she threw herself at me, the gun was loaded... she lost her life.”
It is very rare to see such incidents in northern Tehran, where many of the country’s politicians and businessmen live.
Najafi, 69, served as the mayor of a Tehran only for eight months until April 2018 when his marriage to Mitra caused controversy. He was criticized by hard-liners for marrying Mitra although polygamy is legal in the country.
The hard-liners also criticized Najafi for attending a ceremony where young girls were dancing. However, he said his resignation as mayor of Tehran was due to health issues.
When Najafi’s second marriage was publicized, the hard-liners accused the couple of having relationship outside marriage but they refuted the allegations.
Ostad, who is originally from Kurdish city of Kermanshah, defended her marriage with Najafi in an interview with an Iranian media on Nov 2, 2018, adding that their marriage was done as per Islamic rules.
He held office at Iranian Education Ministry from 1988 to 1997, then became the head of the Budget and Planning Organization until 2000, according to Tehran Times.
He is a retired professor of mathematics and was a board member of Sharif University’s School of Mathematics.
Before becoming the mayor of Tehran he said that he did not belong to any political group and would stay away from politics during his tenure, wrote the newspaper.
Najafi serves as Vice President to President Rouhani as head of cultural heritage and tourism Organisation.
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