Iranian film director's parents confess to murdering their son

In a bizarre revelation, the elderly couple also admit having killed two others

Iranian director Babak Khorramdin's parents were arrested after he was found dead

When Iranian director Babak Khorramdin's dismembered body was found in a rubbish bin this week, police did not have to search far for his killer.

Khorramdin's elderly parents were immediately arrested and within hours his father confessed to the murder.

Akbar Khorramdin, 81, an Iraq-Iran war veteran, told Tehran police he was glad to have killed his son.

He told Tehran Criminal Court that he had no remorse over the murder and was "relieved… I no longer have any worries in my life".

He said his son, who also taught film classes, had recently returned from the UK and had harassed him and his wife since he was a child.

The father's tipping point seems to have come during the coronavirus pandemic, when his son's classes brought a trail of students to the house, many of them women.

He told the court: "I asked my son to get his own place, but Babak refused. He said only his dead body would ever leave our house. Sometimes he beat us. He wanted us to take care of him."

The son's refusal to leave the family home eventually led his parents to plan the murder. Khorramdin Sr told news agency Rokna that he came home on May 14 and told his wife of his son's refusal to move out.

"We decided to kill him. My wife poured a lot of sleeping pills into Babak's food, and when my son was half-unconscious, I stabbed him to death."

Khorramdin said to get the body out of the house, the couple had to dismember their son, eventually dumping the body parts in three different bins.

The shocking confession did not stop there.

According to Mohammad Shahriari, the head of the Tehran Criminal Court, the couple also confessed to killing their son-in-law and daughter in a similar manner.

Mr Khorramdin again said he had "no remorse for any of the murders I committed".

Mr Shariari said the couple had passed a psychiatric exam and were mentally healthy.