Two judges of the Supreme Court were shot dead in Tehran

Two high-ranking Iranian judges have been shot dead inside the country’s Supreme Court, state media reported.

Judicial news website Mizan reported that judges Ali Razini and Mohammad Mahisheh were killed after a gunman entered the court in the capital Tehran early Saturday morning.

It is reported that the attackers committed suicide while fleeing the scene. It is reported that a bodyguard was also injured during the attack.

The motive for the attack is unclear, but both judges are said to have played a role in the persecution and killing of opponents of the Islamic regime during the 1980s and 1990s.

In a statement to the state news agency IRNA, the press service of the court described the attack as a deliberate murder.

It also said that initial findings indicated that the attacker was not involved in any of the cases before the Supreme Court, and that investigations had been launched to identify and arrest other people who may have been involved in the attack.

Judiciary spokesman Asghar Jahangir told Iranian state television that the attacker entered the court with a weapon before opening fire.

One of the judges, Rosini, survived an assassination attempt in 1998.

The second, Mogis, was under US sanctions in 2019at the same time, the Ministry of Finance accused him of “overseeing countless unfair trials in which accusations were unfounded and evidence was ignored.”

At that time, he was a judge of the Tehran Revolutionary Court. He was reportedly appointed to the Supreme Court in 2020.

Moghise was also among seven Iranian judges sanctioned by Canada in 2023 for what the country called “their role in gross and systematic human rights violations.”