CNN
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Two veteran Iranian Supreme Court judges known for handling high-profile cases were shot dead by an assailant in Tehran and later took their own lives.
State media quoted the judiciary as saying there were no pending cases against the attackers. Details of the incident are unclear, but Iranian judicial authorities said the assailant killed two senior judges in a “premeditated assassination” inside the courtroom, attempted to flee, and then took his own life.
Judiciary spokesperson Asghar Jahangir said one security guard was injured in the attack, Mizan news agency reported.
Judges Mohammad Moghise and Ali Ragini are veteran judges who have led courts that tried protesters, artists and activists for decades.
Moghise was sanctioned by the United States in 2019 for overseeing “numerous cases of unfair evidence in which charges were not substantiated and evidence was ignored.” He was sanctioned by the European Union eight years ago.
In one case alone, he sentenced eight Iranian Facebook users to a combined 127 years in prison for propaganda against the regime and insulting religion. He also tried film directors and poets on charges of “propaganda against the state,” according to the U.S. Treasury Department.
In a separate case in 2019, prominent Iranian human rights lawyer and women’s rights activist Nasrin Sotoudeh was sentenced to 33 years in prison and 148 lashes, according to Amnesty International.
According to Iran’s Fars News Agency, Rajini survived an assassination attempt in 1999 when a bomb was placed in his car. He is accused of being one of the judges, along with former President Ebrahim Raisi, involved in the 1988 Death Commission, a notorious commission that oversaw the prosecution and execution of thousands of political prisoners.