Gholamreza Khoshroo Kurdieh

Gholamreza Khosroo Kurdieh
File:غلامرضا خوشرو.jpg
Born	Gholamreza Khosroo Kuran Kurdieh (1965-12-01)December 1, 1965 Faruj, North Khorasan, Iran
Died	August 22, 1997(1997-08-22) (aged 31) Tehran, Iran
Cause of death	Execution by hanging
Other names	"The Night Bat"
Conviction(s)	Murder
Criminal penalty	Death
Details
Victims	9
Span of crimes	April 1997 – June 1997
Country	Iran
Date apprehended	July 22, 1997

Gholamreza Khosroo Kuran Kurdieh (born December 1, 1965 in Faruj - August 22, 1997 in Tehran) was an Iranian serial killer known as the "Night Bat".

He began his murder series connected with thefts and rapes in Tehran in 1992. He was arrested, but escaped, before being arrested again in 1997 and executed for 9 murders. In court, he only confessed to a single case of car theft and stolen property, considering the murders to be personal work.

Biography

On December 1, 1965, Kurdieh was born in Faruj. He got married in Tehran, but following a disturbance, separated from his wife and returned to North Khorasan. He was arrested in 1982 on robbery charges in Nishapur, and was subsequently detained for allegedly spying for Russia.

Kurdieh eventually returned to Tehran, and this time he began his crimes. He was wearing a black dress and stole a taxi. After picking up young girls and women, he would drag them into the wilderness, where he would rape, assault and eventually kill them, burning the bodies afterwards.

He was arrested several times, but repeatedly deceived the authorities by giving them different names. In 1992, after several young girls complained that two men had stolen their money and raped them, the police initiated extensive investigations, and after several days of pursuit, they arrested the two men after an armed conflict. The two men, Ali Karimi and Gholamreza Kurdieh, who at the time identified himself as "Murad Naderi", confessed to several cases of rape and armed robbery in interrogations.

Gholamreza Kurdieh fled the same year he went to court, but his friend Ali Karimi was hanged in March of that year.

Murders

• On April 13, 1997, with the discovery of a 54-year-old woman in front of Chitgar Park in Tehran, the police began their criminal investigation to discover the killer.
• On April 16, 1997, a burning corpse was discovered in a garden in Karaj. The coroner diagnosed the cause of death as knife blows to the neck and chest, and that the burning was caused after death. The body belonged to a woman named A'diah.
• On April 31, 1997, the burning body of a 43-year-old woman was discovered on the road in the construction site of Tehran's Farahzad. Forensics established the death as a result of a neck rupture.
• On June 2, 1997, a burnt body was discovered in Tehran's Evin District. The cause of death according to the coroners were knife blows to the chest and neck. The victim was 24-year-old Elaha Hematinejad, who went to a hospital in Chamran to see her sister, and died the same night she returned home.
• In May 1997, Tehran policemen discovered two burned bodies on the Bakeri Expressway. According to the coroner, the victims were killed prior to being burned. The older victim, Azam Sabtnzhad, was stabbed 27 times, while the younger, her daughter Munira Qhvhchy, had been strangled. 
• On June 14, 1997, the burned corpse of a female student was discovered in West Tehran. The hands and feet of the victim were broken and the cause of death was burning. The victim had been a fifth year student at the Hamadan Dental School.
• On June 30, 1997, the burnt corpse of a 55-year-old woman was discovered on a highway near a construction site in West Tehran.

Arrest

Gholamreza Khosroo Kuran Kurdieh, known as the Night Bat, was arrested in West Tehran's 10th district in the Punak area on July 22, 1997. After his transfer, it was revealed that he had killed the girls and young women.

At first, the real identity of Kurdieh was not clear, and because of this, he referred to by his nickname in the press. The police chief of Tehran announced on a Tehran TV broadcast that, according to him, the killer was an Afghani citizen, due to the large number of Afghani thugs who tortured victims in Iran. However, when Kurdieh's picture was published in the newspapers, a relative of his, Gholamreza Khosro, provided a birth certificate to the Iranian newspaper, identifying his relative as the Night Bat.

Kurdieh never confessed to the murders, and emphasized at all stages of interrogation, trial and even television interviews that his accomplice, Hamid Rasuli, killed the women.

Meanwhile, Hamid Rasuli, the Interior Ministry's intelligence chief, was sentenced to death for serial murder and issuing orders for two executions of Mr. Dariush Forouhar and Ms. Majdas Kandari. It is likely that Rasuli might have been the Night Bat's accomplice.

Trial

He was tried by the Tehran General Court in two trial sessions at Imam Khomeini's Judiciary Complex. His trial was one of the most controversial lawsuits in Iran's history, which severely affected the people. He was charged with 9 murders, attempted murder of his youngest niece by placing him in the drawer, escape from the authorities, theft and rape. All stages of the trial, except for the consideration of his actions, were held publicly.

Execution

On August 22, 1997, he walked down the canopy while writing on the paper: "I am not indebted to anyone, and I am not a creditor and I ask forgiveness for all." And when he received 214 lashes, Kurdieh was hanged in a warehouse near the Azadi Stadium.