Iran stunned by case of couple who drugged and dismembered son

Parents admit murdering film-maker Babak Khorramdin and to killing daughter and son-in-law years before

Emma Graham-Harrison and Akhtar Mohammad Makoii
Fri 21 May 2021 17.58 BST

An Iranian couple have been arrested for drugging, murdering and dismembering their film-maker son, Babak Khorramdin, 47, and also confessed to killing their daughter and son-in-law in the same way years earlier.

The case has stunned Iran, where it has been splashed across the front pages of newspapers with headlines including “Society in shock” and “Occupants of terror house”.

It also prompted intense discussion on social media about a legal system that offers relative leniency to parents who kill their offspring. Murder is usually a capital offence in Iran but people who kill their children face a maximum of 10 years in jail.

Khorramdin’s parents could still face the death penalty, however, if they are put on trial for the murder of their son-in-law.

The film-maker’s murder was discovered in the early hours of Sunday morning. Police were called to the Tehran suburb of Ekbatan after someone spotted human body parts in a bin, local media reported, quoting the judge, Mohammad Shahriari, the head of the Tehran criminal court.

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