Imam Killed at His Home in Sari, Northern Iran

Iranian media reported on Thursday that Yasser Taheri, a member of the Mazandaran provincial clerics’ association and imam of the Imam Hassan al-Askari Mosque in Sari’s Rahband neighbourhood, had been killed at his home. Sari is the provincial capital.

According to Iran’s Mehr News Agency, Taheri was killed with a bladed weapon. The motive and circumstances of the killing remain unknown.

The agency quoted Ali Abbasi, director-general of forensic medicine in Mazandaran province, as saying that investigators were at the scene examining the crime scene. He said the cause of death and details of how the killing occurred would be announced after the body was transferred to the forensic medicine service and the necessary examinations were completed.

The initial reports provided no further details about the identity of the perpetrators or any possible motive for the killing.