A former mayor of Tehran sentenced to death over the murder of his wife has been spared by her family in a post shared on Instagram on Wednesday.
Mohammad Ali Najafi, 67, was sentenced to death last month after being convicted of shooting dead his second wife Mitra Ostad at their home in the Iranian capital on May 28.
Ostad's family had appealed for the Islamic law of retribution to be applied -- an "eye for an eye" form of punishment which would have seen the death penalty served.
But her brother Masood Ostad said the family had decided to grant him a reprieve, according to a post on his private Instagram account cited by various media outlets.
State news agency IRNA said a lawyer for the family, Mahmoud Hajiloui, had confirmed the reprieve.
In his Instagram post, the brother cited a verse from the Koran that says: "Allah loves the doers of good".
"My father, my mother and our Mahyar (his sister's son) forgive Mr Mohammad Ali Najafi" after mediation that involved others, he ...
