World3 min(s) read
Published 13:49 17 Aug 2026 GMT
A woman nicknamed Iran’s “Black Widow” is reportedly facing multiple death sentences after allegedly admitting that she killed as many as 15 men she had married.
Kolthoum Akbari, 56, was investigated in September 2023 following the suspicious death of her 82-year-old husband, Gholamreza Babaei.
As authorities examined the circumstances surrounding his death, they reportedly noticed a disturbing pattern in Akbari’s history.
She had married more than a dozen men over the years, with investigators allegedly discovering that many of them had died unexpectedly.
Iranian prosecutors claim Akbari deliberately targeted older men because she wanted to obtain their property, dowries, gold, cash, and other valuables.
She allegedly persuaded some of the men to enter into a temporary marriage, known as “sigheh” in Iran.
The Middle East Institute describes the practise as one that “allows men to marry a woman for a pre-determined period of time, have intimate relations with her, and then leave her without consequences”.
According to prosecutors, Akbari would allegedly give her husbands a mixture of drugs, including blood pressure and diabetes medication, sedatives, and industrial alcohol, by putting them into their drinks.
As the men became increasingly weak, she is accused of suffocating them with towels or pillows.
Investigators believe the alleged killings continued for more than 20 years, with many of the deaths initially attributed to old age, natural causes, or existing medical conditions.
The alleged killing spree was identified after Babaei’s son reportedly contacted authorities because he suspected that something was wrong.
Akbari was arrested and questioned by investigators, during which she allegedly claimed she had lost track of the number of men she had killed since the alleged murders began around the year 2000.
According to The Telegraph, Akbari allegedly told police during questioning: “I don’t know how many I killed. Maybe it was 13 or 15 people. I don’t remember exactly.”
The precise number of alleged victims remains uncertain, although authorities have identified several men they believe were killed by Akbari.
Among those named are 69-year-old Mirahmad Omrani, who died in 2013, 62-year-old Esmail Bakhshi, who died in 2016, and 83-year-old Ganjali Hamzei, who reportedly died just 43 days after marrying Akbari.
Akbari was eventually charged with 11 counts of premeditated murder and one count of attempted murder. She appeared before the Sari Revolutionary Court last year, where she faced relatives of the men she was accused of killing.
Iranian news agency Mehr News reported that Judiciary spokesman Asghar Jahangir said relatives of 10 alleged victims had requested “retribution” against Akbari.
Under Iran’s qisas system, which is based on the principle of retribution, the requests resulted in multiple death sentences. One family reportedly agreed to accept diya, or blood money, instead.
As a result, Akbari was reportedly sentenced to death 10 times, alongside a prison sentence for the attempted murder conviction.
The Mazandaran Judiciary’s public relations office said on August 9 that Akbari was due to face execution, according to reports. Both Akbari and the families of her alleged victims were reportedly given 20 days to appeal the ruling.
Her lawyer had previously argued that Akbari’s mental state should be assessed. However, a relative of one of the deceased men rejected the suggestion that her alleged actions could be explained by mental illness.
“The combination of drugs, careful planning, and deception of the victims' families cannot be attributed to someone with a mental disorder,” the relative said.
