Iranian woman sentenced to death for killing at least ten husbands over two decades

Kolthoum Akbari, a 56-year-old from the village of Malekabad, has been handed ten death sentences after a court concluded she murdered at least ten of her husbands over a twenty-year period. The Mazandaran Province public relations office reported that Akbari’s method involved administering drugs, industrial alcohol, and sedatives before covering the victims with a towel to suffocate them, allowing her to appropriate their gold, cash and dowry.

Her criminal activity concluded in 2023 when 82-year-old husband Gholamreza Babaei died after complaining about forced medication. Akbari’s own confession suggested the total victim count could be higher, possibly up to fifteen. Ten of the victims’ families have invoked qisas, Iran’s eye-for-an-eye law, while one family accepted blood money (diya). The case follows a previous high-profile Iranian serial killer, Mahin Qadiri, who was executed in 2006.