Two prominent Iranian Supreme Court judges, known for presiding over high-profile cases, were fatally shot in Tehran by an assailant who later died by suicide.
According to state-affiliated media, the judiciary's media office stated that the attacker had no pending legal cases. While details remain unclear, the Iranian judiciary described the incident as a "planned assassination" carried out inside the court. The attacker reportedly attempted to escape but ended his own life.
A security guard was also injured during the attack, judiciary spokesperson Asghar Jahangir told Mizan News Agency.
Judges Mohammad Moghiseh and Ali Razini, both veteran justices of Iran's Supreme Court, were widely known for their decades of rulings against protesters, artists, and activists.
Moghiseh, sanctioned by the United States in 2019 and the European Union in 2011, oversaw numerous trials criticized for lacking evidence and fairness. The U.S. Treasury Department highlighted his sentencing of eight Iranian Facebook users to a total of 127 years in prison for anti-regime publicity and religious insults. He also presided over cases against filmmakers and poets for "propaganda against the state" and sentenced prominent human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh to 33 years in prison and 148 lashes in 2019, Amnesty International reported.
Razini narrowly survived a 1999 assassination attempt when a bomb was attached to his vehicle, according to Iran's Fars news agency. He was also linked to the 1988 "Death Commission," a committee accused of orchestrating the execution of thousands of political prisoners, alongside former president Ebrahim Raisi.
