Two Iranian judges have been killed in a shooting at the Iranian Supreme Court building in Tehran on Jan. 18, Iranian state media have reported. The judges are Ali Razini and Mohammad Moghiseh.
“This morning, a gunman infiltrated the Supreme Court in a planned act of assassination of two brave and experienced judges. The two judges were martyred in the act,” Judiciary spokesman Asghar Jahangir said, reported Iran Daily. Jahangir said the assailant “killed himself” after the shootings, adding that a bodyguard of the judges was also injured in the attack. The motive behind their killing was not immediately clear. Authorities have launched an investigation into the incident. “We hope to be able to quickly publish the results of the follow-ups to arrest those involved” in the incident, Jahangir said.
Jahangir, said on state television that “a person armed with a handgun entered the room” of the two judges and shot them, reported Britain’s The Guardian.
Both judges headed branches of the Supreme Court, and handled cases, “fighting crimes against national security, espionage and terrorism.” The terrorist who carried out the attack reportedly killed himself. One of the assassinated judges, Judge Moghiseh, was sanctioned by the European Union in 2011, and by the United States in 2019, reported CNN. Judge Razini was the target of an assassination attempt in January 1998.
Iran has been the subject of terrorist killings of its scientists, nuclear engineers, and politicians over the years. In the investigation of yesterday’s killings, that context must be taken into account. There is an Anglo-American-Israeli faction that is seeking to bomb Iran and its nuclear facilities, possibly precipitating a broader, escalating conflict, leading, potentially, to nuclear war. Assassinations, including “derivative assassinations”—assassinations induced by outside intelligence agencies that appear to originate from completely different premises—may be used at this time, particularly by British or Israeli intelligence capabilities hostile to any shift to peace in Southwest Asia.
On Jan. 17, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership agreement in Moscow.
