In a rare attack targeting the judiciary, two prominent hard-line judges in Iran, Mohammad Mogheiseh and Ali Razini, were fatally shot in Tehran on Saturday. Both judges were alleged to have participated in the mass executions of dissidents in 1988. Razini had been previously targeted in an assassination attempt in 1999. The attacker, armed with a handgun, also killed himself at the scene.
The Iranian Supreme Court judges served on Iran’s highest court and the attack took place at the Palace of Justice in Tehran. No group has claimed responsibility for the shootings, but both judges had faced previous security threats. The shooter was described as an “infiltrator” by a judiciary spokesperson, hinting that he may have had ties to the courthouse.
Mogheiseh, who was under U.S. Treasury sanctions since 2019, was known for overseeing trials that were considered unfair by international rights groups. Razini, meanwhile, defended the 1988 executions as being fair and lawful in a 2017 interview.
The executions in 1988 were carried out at the end of Iran’s war with Iraq, with thousands of people estimated to have been executed. The Iranian opposition group Mujahedeen-e-Khalq was heavily armed by Saddam Hussein and staged an attack on Iran, leading to the mass executions. Iran has never fully acknowledged these executions, which were reportedly ordered by then-Supreme Leader Ruhollah Khomeini.
Photo credit
www.nbcnews.com