In Iran, two Supreme Court judges murdered in their office by a man who committed suicide

No information has been communicated on the motivations of the perpetrator.

Two judges of the Iranian Supreme Court were assassinated on Saturday January 18 by an armed man who then committed suicide, announced the official agency of the Judicial Authority. According to Iranian media Mizan Online, the victims are the heads of branches 39 and 53 of the Supreme Court, Ali Razini and Mohammad Moghisseh. Judiciary spokesman Asghar Jahangir said on television that the attacker was “entered the office of the two judges armed with a pistol” and killed them.

No information has been communicated on the motivations of the perpetrator, but Mizan Online clarified that he “did not have a case before the Supreme Court.” The case, very rare in Iran, “is now the subject of an investigation”added the official agency, describing the facts as an act “terrorist”.

The two judges killed on Saturday were hodjatoleslams, an intermediate rank in the Shiite clergy, lower than that of Ayatollah. They had presided over the hearings of 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 the judicial system, but also politics of Iran. In 1998, while head of the judiciary in the capital Tehran, he was the target of another assassination attempt, according to Mizan.