TEHRAN: One of Iran`s most prominent film-makers, Dariush Mehrjui, was stabbed to death on Saturday evening alongside his wife at their home near Tehran.

A provincial chief justice said Mehrjui and his wife, Vahideh Mohammadifar, `were killed by multiple stab wounds to the neck`, the judiciary`s Mizan Online website said.

According to Hossein Fazeli-Harikandi, chief justice of Alborz province near Tehran, Mehrjui sent a text message to his daughter, Mona, at about 9pm local time inviting her for dinner at their home in Karaj, west of Tehran. But upon her arrival an hour and a half later, she found the bodies of her dead parents with fatal wounds to their necks.

Later in the day, police said `no signs of forced entry can be seen at the crime scene`, adding that `no damage has been done to the doors` of their home. However, they said `traces have been found` at the scene they believe to be `related to the murderer`. On Sunday, the Etemad newspaper included an interview with the filmmaker`s wife saying she had been threatened and that their home had been burgled.

`The investigation revealed that no complaints had been filed regarding the illegal entry into the Mehrjui`s family villa and the theft of their belongings`, said Fazeli-Harikandi. In a statement, Iran`s minister of culture, Mohammad-Mehdi Esmaili, hailed Mehrjui as `one of the pioneers of Iranian cinema` and `the creator of eternal works`.-AFP