Details of the assassination of "Moghiseh" and "Razini", judges of injustice and oppressors of minorities

Various media outlets reported the details of the assassination of Moghiseh and Razini, judges of injustice and oppressors of minorities.

Judges Mohammad Moghiseh and Ali Razini were shot and killed on Saturday, January 19, 1403. Some news agencies reported that they were killed in their office, while others reported that their assassination took place in front of the Supreme Court building.

Mohammad Moghiseh was an Iranian judge, branch chief, and justice of the Supreme Court who was a staunch and violent supporter of the suppression of minorities and the killing of political prisoners and security and judicial agents, pursuing the execution of prisoners in the 1980s, especially in the summer of 1988.

Ali Razini was also a cleric, judge, and head of Branch 41 of the Supreme Court, who was appointed as the Revolutionary Prosecutor of Tehran after the dismissal of Assadollah Lajevardi. He also headed the Judicial Organization of the Armed Forces and the Administrative Justice Court. He was one of those who participated in the execution trials of the summer of 1988 and, according to his own statements, carried them out on the direct orders of Ruhollah Khomeini. In addition, he issued all the death sentences for female political prisoners in Mashhad in 1981.

Now, the assassination of these two brutal and human rights violators on Saturday has brought to mind the crimes and nightmares they have created for political citizens and religious minorities. Over the past decades, they have played a significant role in issuing death sentences, long prison terms, and systematic harassment of detainees and their families, to the point that Muhammad Moghiseh was placed on the human rights sanctions list by the European Union and the United States for widespread human rights violations.

Mohammad Moghiseh and Ali Razini were known to the people of Iran and various countries as "death judges" who played a major role in the execution of political prisoners in the summer of 1988. The sentences issued by them in 1988 were recognized as "crimes against humanity" by the UN Human Rights Council Special Rapporteur on Iran and were included in the category of the greatest international crimes.

According to statements by relatives of Pastor Hossein Soudmand in Mashhad, when he was tried in the Special Clergy Court in Mashhad and executed on charges of apostasy in 1980, Ali Razini was a trusted judge of Ruhollah Khomeini and Ali Khamenei, who became the head of the Special Clergy Court by Khomeini's order. Pastor Soudmand was also the pastor of the Congregation of the Rabbani Church at the time and was sentenced to death on charges of apostasy by this judge.

Mohammad Moghiseh had also sentenced Christians to nearly 100 years in prison in at least four cases, and had also persecuted their families. He was known for issuing harsh sentences for religious minorities, and by using methods such as refusing to accept appointed lawyers and increasing bail, he had turned the courtroom into a field of psychological pressure and intimidation.

The United States Treasury Department also issued a statement in 2019, while sanctioning Mohammad Moghiseh and Judge Salavati as human rights violators, writing about them: "Abolqasim Salavati and Mohammad Moghiseh are the stage managers of injustice in the regime's show trials. Where journalists, lawyers, political activists, and members of religious and ethnic minorities have been sentenced to long prison terms, flogging, and even execution for exercising their rights to freedom of expression and assembly."

Now, Mohammad Moghiseh and Ali Razini, the death row judges, were shot dead on Saturday, January 19, by a person who some media outlets have identified as a service and water supply employee at the Palace of Justice. According to the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, the assailant was an infiltrator and had acted in a planned manner.

Mohammad Jafar Montazeri, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, appeared on the Islamic Republic Television News Channel on Monday, February 1, as a witness to the scene and, while reconstructing the scene of the attack on the two judges, told the reporter that the attacker had prepared the weapon illegally and in advance. He also announced that the attacker had no criminal record and no case or verdict in the court.

In his statement to the reporter, he added: "I was in the building on the day of the incident, and when I left my office for work and went downstairs, I saw Moghiseh, who had been shot in the hallway, who died after two movements in his arms. I was told there that Razini had also been shot, and when I entered Razini's office, I saw him also fall from his chair, bleeding profusely, and dead."

According to his statements, the assailant first went straight to Razini and then shot Moghiseh, who was in the same office, and then ended his own life by shooting himself in the heart. Now, two days after their murders, no organization or group has yet claimed responsibility for their assassination.

The killing of these two judges in Tehran, whose rulings had affected the lives of many and cast a shadow of fear and hatred on the victims' families, prompted many former political prisoners, civil activists, students, and women to write about their memories of their trials with these two judges, known as the Judges of Death. Many also remembered those killed during the nationwide protests, some of whom were sentenced to death by Ali Razini.