What it means
متهم (motaham) means the accused, the defendant, or someone who has been formally charged. It is borrowed from Arabic, the passive participle of Form VIII verb اتَّهَمَ (ittahama, to accuse), so the literal Arabic meaning is the one who has been accused. In Persian it functions both as an adjective (متهم بودن, motaham budan, to be accused) and as a noun (متهم ردیف اول, motaham-e radif-e avval, the first defendant). The feminine form in Arabic would be متهمه (motahame), and this form is sometimes used in Persian court documents when referring to a female defendant, though in spoken Farsi the gender marking is usually dropped. The direct contrast is with محکوم (mahkum, convicted or condemned), which comes after a guilty verdict. Until conviction, the person is a motaham.
How to use it
- متهم منکر هر گونه اتهامی شد. (motaham monker-e har gune ettehâmi shod.) “The accused denied all charges.”
- وکیل متهم درخواست تجدیدنظر داد. (vakil-e motaham darkhâst-e tajdid-e nazar dâd.) “The defendant’s lawyer filed an appeal.”
- متهم ردیف اول به زندان محکوم شد. (motaham-e radif-e avval be zendân mahkum shod.) “The first defendant was sentenced to prison.”
- تا اثبات جرم، متهمه نه مجرم. (tâ esbât-e jorm, motahame na mojrem.) “Until the crime is proven, she is the accused, not the guilty party.”
Cultural note
In Iranian courtroom reporting, the word متهم (motaham) appears before every accused person’s name in news coverage of trials, functioning much like “defendant” in English legal journalism. Iranian legal culture distinguishes formally between متهم (motaham, accused, not yet convicted) and محکوم (mahkum, convicted), though critics have noted that in high-profile political cases this distinction is sometimes blurred in media coverage before verdicts are reached. The phrase برائت متهم (barâ’at-e motaham, acquittal of the defendant) is the standard phrase for when charges are dropped or the defendant is found not guilty.