Iran's regime was rocked by a successful assassination attempt that took out two judges on the Supreme Court.
The assailant entered the court in Tehran Saturday morning and killed Ali Razini and Mohammad Moghiseh. The motive of the shooting is unclear, but the victims were both high-ranking clerics in the country's repressive, theocratic regime.
The assailant was said to have shot himself dead as police were in pursuit. He did not have a case before the court, according to the judiciary's media center.
Reports on the attack are murky. One account said the assailant was a court staffer, while the court's own Judiciary Media Center described him as an outside infiltrator.
"This morning, an armed infiltrator at the Supreme Court carried out a premeditated assassination targeting two brave and experienced judges renowned for their fight against crimes against national security, espionage, and terrorism," the Judiciary Media Center said.
"As a result of this terrorist act, two dedicated and revolutionary judges—steadfast in their defense of public security—were killed."
Additional suspects "were identified, summoned or arrested and investigations of them have begun," Asghar Jahangir, a spokesman for Iran’s judiciary, told state media.
The assassinations are a rare example of targeted violence against Iran's clerical elite, who have governed the country with an iron fist for decades.
Both of the victims in the attack are high-profile judges known for cracking down on the Iranian opposition. In particular, both men are said to have played a role in the 1988 mass execution of political dissidents in the group Mujahedeen-e-Khalq, or MEK.
In a 2017 interview, Rezini justified the "death commissions" as necessary to secure Iran after the conclusion of the brutal Iran-Iraq war, in which MEK sided with Iran's western neighbor.
“Our friends and I who are among the 20 judges in the country, we did our best to ensure the security of that time and the years after and from then, we guaranteed that the hypocrites (the MEK) could never become powerful in this country,” he reportedly said.
Razini survived a previous assassination attempt in 1999 and Mogheiseh was sanctioned in 2019 by the first Trump administration for his role in cracking down on dissent.
“He is notorious for sentencing scores of journalists and internet users to lengthy prison terms,” the U.S. Treasury said at the time.
Iran is expected to face more pressure with the return of President Trump, who pursued a hardline policy against Tehran during his first term.
The Iranian regime has been rocked by occasional large protests from citizens dissatisfied with the status quo.
The most recent wave of demonstrations, in 2022-2023, led to a government crackdown in which hundreds were killed.
