Former Tehran mayor sentenced to death for killing his wife

Mohammad Ali Najafi, an ex-mayor of Tehran once seen as a potential presidential candidate, has become the first former Iranian official to be sentenced to death after being found guilty of murdering his wife.

In a case that has shocked Iran, Najafi, 67, was convicted of shooting dead his second wife, Mitra Ostad, in the bathroom of their home in May.

His conviction on Tuesday is another blow to reformist politicians in Iran, who had seen the former minister as a potential standard bearer in a presidential election due in 2021.

Reformists have already been undermined by the unravelling of a landmark nuclear deal Iran signed with world powers in 2015, which most of them supported.

Najafi, who initially alleged that his wife was spying on him for the intelligence services, had confessed to killing her but said he fired the pistol by accident and had only meant to intimidate her.

Long before serving as mayor of Tehran, Najafi was education minister and vice-president for planning and budget and became known as one of Iran’s most talented technocrats.

“The court has found him guilty of murder,” a judiciary spokesman announced in a press conference on Tuesday. “Capital punishment will be enforced upon the request of the family of the victim.”

Amnesty International says Iran was second only to China in the number of people it executed, carrying out the death sentence on at least 253 people in 2018. Everyone subject to capital punishment is killed by hanging.

Reformist politicians hope Najafi can escape the death sentence if he successfully appeals against the verdict or if Ostad’s family accepts blood money, which is allowed under Iran’s penal code.

“The Islamic republic has never hanged its officials and will not establish such a precedence,” said a reform-minded analyst. “Even hardliners do not want Mr Najafi to be killed. They just did not want him to run for president, which would not happen now. No need to execute him.”

Reformist politicians supported the decision of President Hassan Rouhani, a political moderate, to sign the nuclear deal. But the Trump administration’s move to abandon it last year has left the accord on the brink of collapse and resulted in punishing economic sanctions being reimposed on Iran.

Eager to capitalise, hardliners are hopeful they can win parliamentary elections in February 2020 and the next presidential poll in 2021.

Ostad’s killing inspired a swirl of conspiracy theories about how one of the country’s most respected officials could have been implicated in such a case.

Iranian social media has been awash with unsubstantiated suggestions that Najafi’s second marriage was a honey trap set by his opponents to prevent him from running for president.

Najafi, who has appeared in court in prison clothing and occasionally in handcuffs, alleges that Ostad had threatened to disclose his secrets to the media and go out with other men.

Ostad’s brother, who is acting as her family’s spokesman, told Iranian media that he would not pardon Najafi because of unfair allegations being levelled against his sister on social media and accusations that the family was being greedy over blood money.

The brother has said there is a “1 per cent chance” of the family pardoning Najafi and accepting blood money. But he said any money could be used to establish charity organisations to help female breadwinners. Ostad was a single parent before marrying Najafi.