The Friday Prayer Imam of Kazeroun in southern Iran was shot dead on Friday, Iran’s official IRNA News reported, in the latest murder to unseat the provincial town's top cleric since the dawn of the Islamic Republic.
Mohammad Sabahi's mysterious death makes him the third Friday Imam of the relatively small town of around 100,000 people to have been killed since the 1979 Islamic revolution.
“Despite the efforts of the doctors and medical staff at Namazi Hospital in Shiraz, the Friday Imam has passed away due to the severity of his injuries,” Kazeroun’s governor, Mohammad Ali Bekhrad, told IRNA on Friday evening.
While refraining from using the word “martyred” - typically deployed when a person's death has a political or religious background - IRNA added that Sabahi was shot by an assailant after Friday prayers.
Imams are appointed to lead Friday prayers by official religious authorities ultimately led by Iran's supreme leader Ali Khamenei.
Conflicting reports initially emerged, with Iranian media first announcing Sabahi’s death and later describing his condition as critical following an armed attack in which the assailant committed suicide.
Bekhrad earlier denied the attack was an act of terrorism, instead suggesting that a personal conflict may have been behind the shooting.
While also refraining from using the word “martyred”, the governor told IRNA investigations into the details of the incident are ongoing.
Three slain imams
Shortly after news of the shooting broke, a popular Telegram channel claimed the assailant was a war veteran. Mehdi Mazarei, head of Kazeroun’s Martyrs Foundation, contradicted the report and warned that anyone spreading false information would face prosecution.
Mizan News, affiliated with Iran’s judiciary, also reported that initial claims identifying the assailant as a war veteran were false, saying, “this individual is not a veteran but has a criminal record.”
According to Mizan, the assailant attempted to harm a judge 20 years ago using explosives, resulting in self-inflicted injuries, and later served six years in prison for a bombing in Gachsaran in southwestern Iran as well as for weapon theft and bribery.
Sabahi previously served as the Friday Imam of Kharameh in Fars province for a decade before resuming his role in Kazeroun in November 2019.
In a similar case on May 29, 2019, Mohammad Khorsand, another Friday Imam of Kazeroun, was fatally stabbed while returning from a Ramadan prayer.
Security forces quickly apprehended a suspect named Hamid Reza Derakhshandeh, who was sentenced to death by Iran’s judiciary, with his execution confirmed and carried out by the Supreme Court within two months.
On July 31, 1981, Abdolrahim Daneshjou, then the Friday Imam of Kazeroun, was shot dead near his home after evening prayers. State sources linked this attack to members of the People's Mujahedin of Iran also known as MEK, which is now an exiled opposition group in Albania.