Assailant kills himself after shooting dead senior justices inside a Supreme Court building in the capital Tehran.
Two senior Iranian justices have been killed in a shooting attack in the Supreme Court in the capital Tehran, according to the judiciary and state media.
The “assassination” was carried out by an armed person, who killed himself after opening fire early on Saturday, according to a statement by the media centre of the judiciary.
The victims were identified as Muslim scholars Ali Razini and Mohammad Moghiseh, both holding the rank of hujjat al-Islam and each presiding over a different branch of the court.
“[They] were actively involved in combating crimes against national security, espionage, and terrorism,” the statement added, describing the slain judges as “courageous and experienced”.
Judiciary spokesman Asghar Jahangir told Iranian state television that “a person armed with a handgun entered the room” of the two judges and shot them. He said the assailant committed suicide.
The identity of the attacker and his motive were not immediately clear.
“Preliminary investigations indicate that the perpetrator had no prior cases in the Supreme Court nor was he one of its visitors,” the statement by the media centre of the judiciary said.
According to the state-owned Tehran Times, a bodyguard of one of the judges was also injured in the attack on Saturday, the first working day of the week in the Iranian calendar.
State-affiliated media reported that a number of people working at the court building, where the attack took place, were detained. The media centre of the judiciary warned against speculation. The judiciary has not confirmed any arrests.
President Masoud Pezeshkian said the “terrorist and cowardly” act must be followed up quickly by security forces and law enforcement.
Razini, 71, was also the subject of an attempted assassination attack in 1998 while he was serving as head of Tehran’s judiciary. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was president at the time, visited him in hospital.
Moghiseh, 68, was sanctioned in 2019 by the United States for having “overseen countless unfair trials, during which charges went unsubstantiated and evidence was disregarded”, according to the US Department of the Treasury.
Iranian judiciary chief Gholam-Hossein Mohseni Ejei said in a statement that the judges were killed due to their “decisive” sentences against “terrorists whose hands were soaked with the pure blood of the Iranian people”.
“They were always the subject of hatred and malice from the enemies,” he said.
Though attacks against judges are rare, Iran has seen a number of shootings of high-profile figures over the past years.
