two Supreme Court judges assassinated in Tehran, assailant commits suicide

Two judges of the Iranian Supreme Court were assassinated on Saturday January 18 in Tehran by an armed man, announced the official agency of the judicial authority, Mizan Online. Two heads of the Supreme Court, judges Ali Razini and Mohammad Moghisseh, were killed in the Supreme Court compound in the south of the Iranian capital, and the attacker committed suicide, Mizan Online said.

The agency did not provide details on the perpetrator's motivations, but said he “did not have a case before the Supreme Court”. The case, very rare in Iran, “now subject to investigation”added Mizan, calling the crime an act “terrorist”.

The two judges killed Saturday were Hodjatoleslam, a mid-ranking Shiite cleric, who had presided over hearings in important trials in recent years. Mohammad Moghisseh, 68, has had a long career in the justice system since the establishment of the Islamic Republic in 1979. He was sanctioned in 2019 by the United States for having “oversaw countless unfair trials”.

For his part, Ali Razini, 71, has held important positions within Iran's judicial and political systems. In 1998, then head of the judiciary in the capital, Tehran, he was the target of a first assassination attempt, according to Mizan.

In April 2023, an Ayatollah member of the Assembly of Experts, the college responsible for appointing, supervising and eventually removing the Supreme Leader, was shot and killed in northern Iran. In 2005, the judge of the revolutionary court of Tehran, Massoud (Hassan) Moghadas, was assassinated in the street in Tehran.