Iranian court hears case of 2 clerics stabbed to death at holy shrine

The open session at Mashhad’s Islamic Revolution Court was chaired by Judge Hadi Mansour and attended by the families of the victims of the knife attack, the defendant and their lawyers on Sunday.

On April 5, an attacker stabbed to death an Iranian cleric and seriously wounded two others at the courtyard of Imam Reza’s holy shrine, the eight Shia Imam. One of the two injured clerics later succumbed to his injuries.

During the session, the prosecutor identified the attacker as Afghan national Abdollatif Moradi and said he was inspired by the Takfiri ideology and had illegally entered Iran.

The prosecutor said the defendant faces charges of Hirabah, an Arabic term that means ‘unlawful warfare,’ by using a knife, murder and terror.

The relatives of the martyrs and lawyers of the two sides took the podium at the hearing to present the court with their complaints and arguments.

Witnesses also told the session of their observations at the crime scene.

The defendant was finally summoned to the podium by the judge. He confessed to his terrorist crimes. He said, however, that he did not hold any grudge against the Iranian people, who treated him nicely.

The defendant said he had undergone Takfiri training “in one of the neighboring countries.”