Iranian religious singer Hamid Reza Rajabzadeh found murdered in Tehran outskirts

TEHRAN, Iran — Iranian security and judicial authorities have released new details on the killing of religious singer Hamid Reza Rajabzadeh, who had been missing for two weeks. Tehran Criminal Investigations Prosecutor Mohammad Shahriari said the body was found in the Pervand area on the southeastern outskirts of the capital, in a desert region, and that the perpetrators had set the body on fire to obscure identification. He added that the remains were sent for forensic autopsy. Police spokesman Saeed Montazer al-Mahdi announced that four men and one woman had been detained as part of the investigation. According to preliminary investigation reports cited by local media, the main suspect, a woman, had taken the victim to a remote location after admonishing him for roughly six months under the framework of "commanding good and forbidding evil." The reports say she poisoned him with food before accomplices stabbed him to death. Investigators also found that the perpetrators recorded the murder on a mobile phone and sent the footage to the exiled opposition group People's Mujahedin Organization of Iran (MEK) in exchange for money. State television rejected claims circulated by hostile foreign media outlets, while police said the case was being examined to determine whether the killing bore terrorist dimensions. No further details were immediately released on a possible motive or a trial date.