United Arab Emirates’ DUBAI Two senior hard-line judges who were allegedly involved in the 1988 mass murder of dissidents were shot dead by a man in Iran’s capital on Saturday, according to officials.
No group quickly took credit for the killings of Ali Razini and Muhammad Mogheiseh, two clerics who served as judges. However, Razini was probably already a target because of his involvement in the 1988 executions, which included a 1999 assassination attempt.
Their murders, an uncommon assault on the judiciary, coincide with Iran’s economic unrest, Israel’s belittling of its Mideast friends, and Donald Trump’s visit to the White House on Monday.
According to the state-run IRNA news agency, both clerics were members of Iran’s Supreme Court. The incident at Tehran’s Palace of Justice, which also houses the nation’s judicial headquarters and is usually under strict protection, also injured a bodyguard for one of the justices.
According to IRNA, the assailant, who was carrying a firearm, committed suicide.
Initial inquiries revealed that the individual in question was not a client of the court’s branches nor had a matter before the Supreme Court, according to the judiciary’s Mizan news agency. Investigations are in underway to find and apprehend the terrorists responsible for this attack.
Separately, Iranian judiciary spokesman Asghar Jahangir informed Iranian state television that the gunman had been an infiltrator, implying that he had been employed at the courthouse where the murders occurred.
The Iranian Supreme Court has numerous branches located throughout the nation, in contrast to the U.S. Supreme Court. As Iran’s highest court, it has the authority to consider appeals of rulings by subordinate courts.
Razini had already been singled out. As he was leaving his job as head of the court in Tehran in January 1999, he was wounded when motorcycle-borne terrorists threw an explosive at his car.
Since 2019, Mogheiseh has been subject to U.S. Treasury penalties. According to the Treasury at the time, he had presided over innumerable unfair trials in which accusations were unsupported and evidence was ignored.
According to the Treasury, he is well-known for giving severe prison sentences to numerous journalists and internet users. According to the Treasury, Mogheiseh had filed charges against Baha’i members of Iran after they allegedly participated in prayer and worship rituals with other Baha’i members.
Exiles and activists have accused both men of participating in the 1988 killings, which marked the conclusion of Iran’s protracted war with Iraq. Members of the exiled Iranian opposition group Mujahedeen-e-Khalq, or MEK, who were well armed by Saddam Hussein, launched a surprise offensive over the Iranian border after Iran’s then-Supreme Leader Ruhollah Khomeini agreed to a ceasefire mediated by the United Nations.
The strike laid the groundwork for the fake retrials of militants, political prisoners, and others that would come to be known as death commissions, even if Iran ultimately weakened their attack.
The MEK estimates 30,000 executions, whereas international rights organizations believe up to 5,000. Although others contend that other senior officials were essentially in charge in the months preceding Khomeini’s death in 1989, Iran has never completely recognized the executions, which were reportedly carried out on his orders.
When contacted by The Associated Press, the MEK refused to respond.
In a 2017 interview with Iran’s Shargh newspaper, Razini defended the panels as impartial and fully compliant with the law, even though Mogheiseh never responded to the charge that he participated in the 1988 death commissions.
According to reports, he stated that his buddies and I, who are among the 20 judges in the nation, did everything in our ability to prevent the hypocrites (the MEK) from gaining power in this country in the future.