{"id":191294,"date":"2026-07-05T15:27:14","date_gmt":"2026-07-05T15:27:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/191294\/"},"modified":"2026-07-05T15:27:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-05T15:27:14","slug":"tehran-planning-to-appoint-new-chief-justice-to-replace-mohseni-ejei","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/191294\/","title":{"rendered":"Tehran planning to appoint new chief justice to replace Mohseni-Eje&#8217;i"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Iran&#8217;s Supreme Leader\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.jpost.com\/middle-east\/iran-news\/article-901377\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Mojtaba Khamenei<\/a> plans to appoint a new chief justice of Iran, anti-regime London-based outlet Iran International reported last week.<\/p>\n<p>Sources told Iran International that the current <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jpost.com\/middle-east\/iran-news\/article-900823\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Chief Justice<\/a>, Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Eje&#8217;i, is expected to be replaced at the end of his first five-year term.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph-section article-body-paragraph\">The same sources said that the decision is not part of judicial reform per se, but rather part of a broader power restructuring following the recent war; the new supreme leader is seeking to align Iran&#8217;s various power centers more closely with his personal vision.<\/p>\n<p>Iran International reported that the decision &#8220;comes amid growing criticism of Mohseni-Eje&#8217;i from hardline figures,&#8221; who saw him as being &#8220;at odds with Khamenei&#8217;s stated position,&#8221; especially in regard to the Memorandum of Understanding between the United States and Iran.<\/p>\n<p>During Iran&#8217;s Judiciary Week, an annual national observance dedicated to\u00a0the country&#8217;s judiciary, Khamenei issued a message calling for the implementation of the Judicial Transformation Document, which, according to\u00a0Iran International, is a strategic roadmap and long-term plan for guiding the Iranian judiciary. It aims to modernize, digitize, improve efficiency, and implement anti-corruption and public rights measures.<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"In this image released on July 4, 2026, Secretary-General of the Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine Ziyad al-Nokhaleh shakes hands with Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, and next to him are Chief Justice of Iran Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Eje\u2019i and Iranian Foreign Minister Araghchi.\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"632\" height=\"492\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/728362.jpeg\"\/>In this image released on July 4, 2026, Secretary-General of the Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine Ziyad al-Nokhaleh shakes hands with Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, and next to him are Chief Justice of Iran Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Eje\u2019i and Iranian Foreign Minister Araghchi. (credit: Meghdad Madadi ATPImages\/Getty Images)Chief Justice Mohseni-Eje&#8217;i defends his performance<\/p>\n<p>According to Iran International, Mohseni-Eje&#8217;i published a letter in response to Khamenei&#8217;s message, defending the judiciary&#8217;s performance and committing to maintain the path of &#8220;judicial transformation.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph-section article-body-paragraph\">He wrote, \u201cI and all components of the judiciary consider ourselves obliged to carry out Your Excellency\u2019s binding commands precisely, swiftly and without any reduction.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Various factions within the Iranian regime have mounted attacks on Mohseni-Eje&#8217;i, who, according to Iran International, has only stated his loyalty to Khamenei&#8217;s goals in this recent letter, after the security of his position came under fire.<\/p>\n<p>Mohseni-Eje&#8217;i&#8217;s supporters defend him by pointing to reduced imprisonment, shorter trials, as well as the implementation of anti-corruption efforts and the use of electronic court proceedings as falling in line with the Judicial Transformation Document and the regime&#8217;s stated goals.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;Judge of Death&#8217; oversees array of human rights violations<\/p>\n<p>Human rights organizations, on the other hand, such as Iran Human Rights Monitor, call out Mohseni-Eje&#8217;i as a key figure in the Islamic Republic&#8217;s repressive regime, with some naming him the &#8220;Judge of Death&#8221; because of his extensive record of orchestrating mass executions, torturing dissidents, and shutting down civil liberties.<\/p>\n<p>Amnesty International said that during the January 2026 clampdowns on anti-government protests, Mohseni-Eje&#8217;i &#8220;ordered rapid prosecutions and &#8216;deterrent&#8217; punishments,&#8221; publicly boasting about &#8220;ordering harsher charges against arrested protesters than those leveled by prosecutors,&#8221; as well as ordering the interrogation of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jpost.com\/middle-east\/article-900870\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">protesters<\/a> &#8220;without lawyers present in coerced &#8216;confessions&#8217; broadcast on state media.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Amnesty International also revealed that those sentenced to death or facing imminent execution under Mohseni-Eje&#8217;i&#8217;s directives included individuals who were under the age of 18 at the time of their alleged offenses, in direct violation of international law.<\/p>\n<p>Iran International said that rights groups believe that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jpost.com\/middle-east\/iran-news\/article-897886\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Mohseni-Eje&#8217;i&#8217;s<\/a> replacement would do little to bring meaningful change, so long as deep structural reform does not follow.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph-section article-body-paragraph\">To them, his replacement amounts to little more than a cosmetic change.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Iran&#8217;s Supreme Leader\u00a0Mojtaba Khamenei plans to appoint a new chief justice of Iran, anti-regime London-based outlet Iran International&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":191295,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3],"tags":[34,58,29312,57101,5633,90,2289,10880],"class_list":["post-191294","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-iran","tag-iran","tag-iran-news","tag-judicial-reform","tag-judicial-system","tag-judiciary","tag-khamenei","tag-mojtaba-khamenei","tag-supreme-court"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116868077530453100","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191294","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=191294"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191294\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/191295"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=191294"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=191294"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=191294"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}