Abulghasem Salavati, who heads Branch 15 of the Revolutionary Court in Tehran, is known as one of Iran’s “hanging judges.” As the London Guardian reported recently, Salavati and his colleague, Mohammad Moghiseh, are most prominent judges in a drive to suppress independent journalists and political dissenters. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), a professional organization based in Brussels, denounced Iran on July 29 for keeping 27 journalists locked up.

The careers of Salavati and Moghiseh are a microcosm of the denial of justice in Iran. Salavati has been accused for years of holding short, secret proceedings in which legal standards are ignored, as he threatens defendants and acts as a prosecutor rather than a judge. Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, an Iranian opposition advocate now living in Norway, described Salavati ordering half a dozen death sentences against protestors in the reformist “Green movement” of 2009. More than 100 participants in the “Green movement” were charged in a mass show trial held in Tehran that year, over which Salavati presided.