Iran’s chief justice demanded all executions of “enemy agents” be sped up in a jarring video leaked the same day the US secured a temporary cease-fire with war-torn Tehran.
Chief Justice Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejei, a hardliner within the repressive Islamic Republic, implored the state judiciary to rush cases against “agents and affiliates of the enemy” — which includes protesters facing the death penalty.
“In cases where issuing rulings such as asset confiscation and the death penalty is warranted for enemy agents, the process should be expedited,” Mohseni-Ejei said, according to a video and translation posted by the Iran Human Rights Documentation Center on Tuesday.
“More verdicts must be issued against the enemy’s affiliates.”
State media has already confirmed 14 executions by the brutal regime this year, though the Norwegian-based Hengaw Organization for Human Rights reported evidence of as many as 160 hangings since January.
Those executed were convicted of intangible charges like “waging war against God” and “corruption on Earth.”
The notoriously conservative Mohseni-Ejei was handpicked in 2021 to lead Iran’s supreme court by slain Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. An acolyte of the Islamic Republic, he frequently calls for the harshest punishments — either torture or death — for protesters who have revolted against the regime.
The conservative justice is one of the few regime leaders who survived devastating airstrikes on Feb. 28, which wiped out Ali Khamenei and dozens of his top military leaders — and launched the Iran war.
Mohseni-Ejei also accused President Trump and Israel of fomenting nationwide anti-regime protests in January — which coincided with the slaughter of thousands of demonstrators by Khamenei’s henchmen.
The killings of more than 7,000 protestors have been confirmed by the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency, though thousands more are still under investigation.
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The US and Iran reached a delicate cease-fire late Tuesday after Trump chillingly warned that “a whole civilization will die” if the Strait of Hormuz, a critical shipping waterway, wasn’t reopened immediately.
The tenuous deal is already off to a rocky start as Iran reportedly blocked ships from passing through the Strait on Wednesday.
Tehran blamed the reversal on Israel striking Hezbollah targets in Lebanon — despite Trump saying that Beirut was never part of the cease-fire agreement.
