By South China Morning Post | Created at 2025-01-18 12:56:27 | Updated at 2025-01-18 19:40:23
6 hours ago
A man fatally shot two prominent hardline judges in Iran’s capital on Saturday, officials said, both of whom allegedly took part in the mass execution of dissidents in 1988.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the shootings of the judges, clerics Mohammad Mogheiseh and Ali Razini. However, Razini’s involvement in the 1988 executions had likely made him a target in the past, including a failed assassination attempt in 1999.
Their killings, a rare attack targeting the judiciary, also come as Iran faces economic turmoil, the mauling of its Middle East allies by Israel and the return of Donald Trump to the White House on Monday.
Both clerics served on Iran’s Supreme Court, the state-run IRNA news agency reported. A bodyguard for one of the judges also was wounded.
The attacker, who was armed with a handgun, killed himself, IRNA said.
“According to initial investigations, the person in question did not have a case in the Supreme Court nor was he a client of the branches of the court,” the judiciary’s Mizan news agency said. “Currently, investigations have been launched to identify and arrest the perpetrators of this terrorist act.”
