Murder in the Criminal Law of Iran and Islam
| Date | 01 March 2004 |
| DOI | 10.1350/jcla.68.2.160.29117 |
| Published date | 01 March 2004 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
Murder in the Criminal Law of
Iran and Islam
Dr Ebrahim Ghodsi*
Abstract Wilful murder, the deliberate killing of another human being, is
considered a crime in the criminal law of Iran and Islam, and the con-
sequential penalty invoked is retaliation. The offence, as in English law,
requires proof of both actus reus (external element) and mens rea (fault
element). The statutory offence may be found in Articles 14 and 204–268
of the 1991 version of the Islamic Penal Code and in Articles 612–615 of
1996 Code.
In Islam there are many verses and precedents (of the Prophet and the
Shiite Imams) condemning the crime of murder as illegal and retaliation
as the appropriate punishment for this crime provided the legal elements
are established. The requisite elements of the offence have been subjected
to varied review in Iran and Islam. The focus of this article is to study the
key ingredients in more depth.
Retaliation as a punishment has three key aspects: it is personal; it
should be equal with the crime; and to be performed according to the will
and option of the avengers of blood.
Murder in the criminal law of Iran and Islam
Homicide is divided into three groups in Iran and Islam: wilful murder,
quasi-intentional homicide and unintentional homicide. It is instructive
to consider each in turn.
In the case of wilful murder, the murderer intends both the action and
the result or consequence: A with the intention of killing B shoots him
and consequently kills him. This represents a paradigm scenario of wilful
murder. In quasi-intentional homicide, the murderer intends the action,
but not the result: A with the intention of hurting B does the action and
does not expect or intend the consequence, but B is killed. In uninten-
tional homicide, the murderer neither intends the action nor the result:
A goes hunting and shoots a fawn, but the shot accidentally hits B and
kills him.
In this article wilful murder and its elements are studied according to
Iranian and Islamic law. The constituent legal elements of wilful murder
incorporate both the physical element of the crime and also the requisite
mental ingredient. The discussion below concentrates on Islamic law
and provides a comparison of the similarities and differences that prevail
in other jurisdictions.
* Assistant Professor, Department of Law, School of Human and Social Sciences,
Mazandaran University, Babolsar, Iran. The author would like to express his sincere
thanks to Ms Azarakhsh, Dr Bakhshi and Dr Mafi for help in the preparation of this
article and for their critical review of it.
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