Following the announcement of the killing of clerics Mohammad Moghiseh and Ali Razini in Tehran, government officials and media released contradictory reports.
The state-affiliated Mizan News Agency, linked to the regime’s judiciary, reported that the assailant was an armed individual who entered the office of the two judges and killed them. The agency denied reports of injuries to a third judge.
The government media outlet Khabar Fori quoted Moghiseh’s statement from a month ago, in which he had said: “Insecurity in society is our red line!”
Ali Rabiei, a former advisor to the regime’s president and an intelligence operative, wrote about the killing of these two clerics: “Public vigilance will neutralize these conspiracies in the continuation of Iranian solidarity. Whenever a glimpse of hope and resolution appears, Iran’s ill-wishers engage in targeted and hypocritical acts of violence, such as today’s bloody assassination within the judiciary.”
Who Were Razini and Moghiseh?
In the early 1980s, Ali Razini served as the Revolutionary Prosecutor in Mashhad, overseeing the arrest, execution, and torture of members of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) and other dissidents in Khorasan Province. During his tenure, thousands of PMOI members were executed by firing squads across cities in Khorasan.
In March 1985, in recognition of Razini’s loyalty to his regime,Ruhollah Khomeini, the former Supreme Leader of the Iranian regime, appointed him as the Central Revolutionary Prosecutor, succeeding Asadollah Lajevardi, a notorious torturer. From then on, executions of prisoners in Tehran were carried out under his supervision and orders until 1987.
High-Ranking Iranian Regime Judges Mohammad Moghiseh and Ali Razini Killed
After the 1979 Revolution, Mohammad Moghiseh joined the prosecutor’s office. Due to his cruelty and brutality, he became a lead interrogator at one of Evin Prison’s notorious branches in 1981, sending prisoners to execution fields in groups.
In 1984, Mohammad Moghiseh, under the alias “Naseri,” was appointed as the deputy prosecutor overseeing Ghezel Hesar Prison. After Ghezel Hesar Prison was emptied of political prisoners in 1986, he was appointed as the chief deputy prosecutor of Gohardasht Prison.
Moghiseh did not even spare sick prisoners from execution. In August 1988, at Gohardasht Prison, he insisted on executing all prisoners whose sentences had been completed.
According to state media reports, two judges involved in the 1988 summer massacre, Moghiseh and Razini, were targeted and killed on the morning of Saturday, January 18, in the Supreme Court building.
The state-run Fars News Agency reported, quoting an informed source, that the judges were targeted with live bullets, killing two of them and injuring a third one. According to the report, the assailant committed suicide after the shooting.
In March 1981, Ali Razini became a judge at the Islamic Revolutionary Court in Tehran while simultaneously serving at the “Revolutionary Military Court” and the “Revolutionary Court of the IRGC.”
In the fall of 1981, he was sent to Bojnourd and subsequently appointed by the Supreme Judicial Council as the head of the Khorasan Provincial Court. He moved to Mashhad, where, alongside Mostafa Pourmohammadi, who held the position of Revolutionary Prosecutor, he orchestrated the massacre of political dissidents in the province, particularly members of the PMOI. Many were sent to execution squads, prisons, and torture chambers under his orders.
The execution of women in Mashhad began under Razini. During this period, numerous reports emerged of women being subjected to sexual assault before execution following his involvement in the Mashhad Revolutionary Court.
Razini actively participated in the massacre of political prisoners in the 1980s, issuing death sentences for many political detainees.
Razini was also appointed by Khomeini as a judge on the Death Committee, which in the summer of 1988 massacred over 30,000 political prisoners, most of whom were members or supporters of the PMOI.
