Investigating the Effect of the Perpetrator's Belief on the Mens Rea of Murder from the Perspective of Criminal Law of Iran and Afghanistan and Imamiyah Jurisprudence

Abstract

According to the criminal laws of Iran and Afghanistan and Imamiyah jurisprudence, one of the conditions for the realization of intentional homicide is that the perpetrator had the intention of killing a specific victim and achieved his goal, but in cases such as murder in the belief of Mahdur al-Dam (free to homicide), despite the provision of the conditions of intentional murder, Imamiyah jurists and Iranian legislators have considered it as unintentional murder. The main issue of the research is that from the perspective of the criminal laws of Iran, Afghanistan and Imamiyah jurisprudence, in what way does the belief of the perpetrator affect the mens rea of homicide, causing it to change from murder to manslaughter? The purpose of the current research is to investigate the effect of the perpetrator's false belief on the mens rea of murder in the criminal laws of Iran, Afghanistan and Imamiyah jurisprudence. For this purpose, analytical-descriptive method with a library approach has been used. The results indicate that, according to Imamiyah jurisprudence, in two cases false belief causes the mens rea of murder to change to pseudo-intentional. One is mistake of fact, regardless of whether his belief is through ordinary or extraordinary ways. The other is mistake of the law, if his belief was obtained through ordinary methods. Iran's legislator has also following Imamiyah jurists accepted this issue. However, in the criminal law of Afghanistan, a mistake of fact and mistake of law caused by the false belief of the perpetrator, changes murder to unintentional manslaughter.

Keywords

• perpetrator's belief
• homicide due to belief on mahdur al-dam
• mistake of fact
• mistake of law
• mens rea of murder