Two Iranian Supreme Court judges, Ali Razini and Mohammad Moqiseh, were assassinated on Saturday in a shooting attack in Tehran, Tehran Times reported.
Judiciary spokesman Asghar Jahangir reported that “a person armed with a handgun entered the room of the two veteran judges before noon Saturday and martyred them.” Their bodyguard was injured in the attack.
“The gunman immediately committed suicide while running away and we cannot talk about his motives at the moment,” Jahangir said, which is a very convenient thing in every assassination.
“Martyrs Razini and Moqiseh were always the target of malice held by the enemies because of their brilliant records,” Jahangir explained, adding, “In the past year, the Judiciary has taken extensive measures to identify spies and hypocritical groups, and this has led to the anger and resentment of the enemies.”
I looked it up. From 1987 to 1993, Razini, 71, served as the head of the Judicial Organization of the Armed Forces, where he issued stoning sentences for two military personnel.
During the 1988 massacre, on July 24, 1988, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini tasked Razini with establishing special courts to handle war crimes across all war zones, instructing him to deal with offenders according to Shari’a law, regardless of any rules or regulations that could be limiting or problematic.
Rizani was the target of another assassination in 1998 when a magnetic bomb was planted in his car.
Mohammad Moghiseh, 68, served on the Supreme Court of Iran from 2020 until his death. He was the sentencing judge in the case of civil rights attorney Nasrin Sotoudeh and adjudicated the case of filmmaker Hossein Rajabian. Moghiseh was sanctioned in December 2019 by the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) under Executive Order 13846. The sanctions were imposed for his involvement in censorship and other activities related to restricting the exercise of freedom of expression or assembly by Iranian citizens, dating back to July 12, 2009.
Judiciary Chief Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei released a statement hours after the attack, proclaiming, “Over many years of dedicated service, these two martyrs were always at the forefront of justice, fighting tirelessly to uphold the rights of the oppressed against oppressors, criminals, and wrongdoers. They remained steadfast in prosecuting and punishing terrorists, spies, murderers, and those threatening citizens’ security. Their courage, decisiveness, and frankness in their judicial duties often angered traitors and hypocrites.”
