Mahin Qadiri

Background

Mahin Qadiri was an Iranian woman convicted as a serial killer.

A Guardian report described her as a 32-year-old suspect, named only as Mahin, accused of killing at least six people, including five women, in Qazvin.

The Qazvin police chief, Ali Akbar Hedayati, said Mahin was afflicted by “a ­mental disorder triggered by having been deprived of her mother's love.”

The offence

An AFP report said Mahin Qadiri was convicted of murdering five middle-aged women and that she went on a killing spree between February 2008 and May 2009.

The AFP report said Qadiri murdered her victims by rendering them unconscious and then strangling them.

The Guardian report said police believed they had caught Iran’s first female serial killer and claimed she had disclosed a literary inspiration behind her attempts to evade detection, describing her as inspired by the crime novels of Agatha Christie.

The Guardian report said Mahin was accused of killing at least six people, including five women, and that officials said she also admitted the earlier murders of her former landlord and an aunt.

The Guardian report said Mahin carefully chose her victims, targeting elderly and middle-aged women, and offered them lifts home after picking them up at shrines in the city where they had been praying.

The Guardian report said that after offering her victims a lift, Mahin allegedly gave them fruit juice that she had spiked with an anaesthetic to knock them out, and that she would then suffocate them before stealing their jewellery and other possessions and dumping the bodies in secluded spots.

The Guardian report said one victim was beaten to death with an iron bar after regaining consciousness.

The Guardian report said Mahin’s confessions included that she had been taking patterns from Agatha Christie books and that she had been trying not to leave any trace of herself.

A specific statement attributed to the Qazvin prosecutor was included:

“Mahin in her confessions has said that she has been taking patterns from Agatha Christie books and has been trying not to leave any trace of herself,” Mohammad Baqer Olfat, the Qazvin prosecutor, told Iranian journalists.

A specific statement attributed to the police chief was included:

“a ­mental disorder triggered by having been deprived of her mother's love.”
“She would draw her chosen victims into conversation by telling them they reminded her of her mother,” the police chief said.

Investigation

An AFP report said the official IRNA news agency reported that Qadiri was convicted and then hanged.

The Guardian report said police were claiming she had disclosed a literary inspiration behind her attempts to evade detection, and it stated that “Which Christie novels Mahin studied has not yet been revealed, though many of the books describe killers using drugs.”

The Guardian report said the officers suspected the killer may have been a woman after studying a footprint found near one of the bodies.

The Guardian report said a 60-year-old woman, having read about the murders, told police she had escaped from a light-coloured Renault car after becoming suspicious of the female driver.

The Guardian report said police then checked cars matching that description.

The Guardian report said Mahin was identified after attention was drawn to her by records showing she had been fined following a recent road accident.

Arrest

The Guardian report stated that after apparently being so careful to stay ahead of police, a road traffic offence alerted detectives and led to her arrest.

The Guardian report said she was identified through records showing she had been fined following a recent road accident, after officers checked cars matching the light-coloured Renault described by the 60-year-old woman.

Trial

An AFP report said Qadiri was convicted and was hanged after her conviction.

The Guardian report described Qadiri as a suspect accused by officials.

Sentencing

Mahin Qadiri was executed by hanging.

Outcome

An AFP report said she was hanged in a prison in the central city of Qazvin on December 20, 2010.

The AFP report said the hanging brought the number of executions in Iran to at least 151 so far that year.

The AFP report said at least 270 people were executed in 2009.

The AFP report said Iran, along with China, Saudi Arabia and the United States, had one of the highest numbers of executions each year.

The AFP report included a statement about Iran’s death penalty position:

“The Islamic republic says the death penalty is essential to maintain law and order and is applied only after exhaustive judicial proceedings.”

The AFP report stated that murder, rape, armed robbery, drug trafficking and adultery were all punishable by death in Iran.

Aftermath

The AFP report and the Guardian report both discussed executions and ongoing reporting about Mahin Qadiri after her conviction and sentencing.

Other details

The Guardian report said Mahin was accused of being driven by a desperate need for money after chalking up debts of more than £16,000.

The Guardian report said Christie's novels were highly popular among Iranians and that Agatha Christie died in 1976 and had visited Iran several times, using it as the setting for one of her stories, “The House at Shiraz.”

The Guardian report included that “The writer, who died in 1976, visited Iran several times and used it as the setting for one of her stories, The House at Shiraz.”