TEHRAN – Iran is in shock for an “honor” crime, reported on the front page by all the newspapers of the country. The victim is a well-known film director, Babak Khorramdin, 47 years old. His body was found dismembered in a waste bin. And adding to the horror is the fact that it was his parents who killed him and tore him apart. But that’s still not enough: the elderly couple, put under pressure by the police, also confessed to having killed their daughter and son-in-law several years ago, in the same way.
Khorramdin graduated in film from Tehran University in 2009 and then moved to London, where he had lived for a few years. Back in Iran, he devoted himself to teaching. He had never married, and this had created discomfort for his parents, also because he attended several of his students. His body, torn to pieces, was found by accident in a suitcase and some garbage bags thrown in a bin in Ekbatan, a suburb of Tehran. The police were able to identify him thanks to the fingerprints of his hands, truncated and found together with the other remains.
When they went to their parents’ home – Iran Khorramdin, 74, and Akbar Khorramdin, 81 – the police found some evidence of the crime and the couple finally confessed. Without showing any repentance. On the contrary, the father told in great detail what happened: “It was Friday night when his mother cooked the chicken and stuffed it with sleeping pills to make him lose consciousness. But he didn’t eat it and went to sleep, so we put the food in the fridge. The next day he woke up and ate it “and fell asleep. At that point, the two tied him to a chair, put a plastic bag on his head and stabbed him several times. After dismembering the body in the bathroom, they discarded it by throwing it in the dumpster.
Under interrogation, the two also confessed to killing their daughter several years ago, because they say she was taking drugs, and then their son-in-law, because he was violent. There was no sign of remorse on the part of the two elders. The father, during the court hearing, said: “I do not regret what I did with the cooperation of my wife. They were corrupt and I thank God.”
Murder is usually a capital offense in Iran, but people who kill their children face up to 10 years in prison. Khorramdin’s parents, writes the Guardian, however, they risk the death penalty if they are tried for the murder of their son-in-law.
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