An Urgent Warning Following the Judiciary Chief’s Latest Speech in Iran
On Monday, 4 January 2026, the head of Iran’s judiciary, Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejehi, issued a public and unequivocal directive to prosecutors across the country, ordering them to act with “decisiveness,” to show “no leniency or tolerance,” and to pursue protesters—and anyone accused of supporting them—without delay.
In this speech, protesters were repeatedly referred to as “rioters,” “elements disrupting public security,” and individuals who could no longer claim to be “deceived.” Ejehi explicitly instructed prosecutors to:
- deny any form of leniency,
- accelerate prosecutions,
- fast-track trials and verdicts,
- and identify not only protesters, but anyone alleged to have provided them with “equipment” or “support.”
These words are not rhetorical.
In Iran, such language functions as a lethal signal.
When Judicial Language Becomes a Kill Order
Iranian citizens are not killed or executed in a legal vacuum.
They are first renamed.
Before protesters are shot in the streets, they are called “rioters.”
Before detainees are tortured, they are labeled “threats to public security.”
Before defendants are sentenced to death, they are charged as “mohareb” or “baghi.”
This pattern was clearly documented. including during:
- the November 2019 protests, when hundreds were killed after protesters were officially framed as security threats; and
- the Woman, Life, Freedom uprising, where protesters—including teenagers, women, artists, students, and grieving families—were systematically reclassified as enemies of the state.
The language always comes first.
Violence follows.
From Citizens to Legitimate Targets
These labels serve three dangerous functions:
- Dehumanization
Once a person is defined as a “rioter” or “enemy,” their life becomes expendable.
- Pre-judgment
Guilt is presumed before arrest, trial, or evidence—violating the presumption of innocence.
- Legal Enablement of Lethal Force
Particularly through religiously charged terms like mohareb and baghi, the state creates a pathway to capital punishment, often after grossly unfair trials.
This language turns public spaces into kill zones and courtrooms into instruments of execution.
Inside and Outside Prison Walls: A Direct Threat to Life
The danger posed by this terminology is not abstract.
- Outside prisons:
Security forces interpret these labels as authorization to use lethal force with impunity.
- Inside prisons:
Detainees labeled under these categories face torture, coerced confessions, denial of legal counsel, and death sentences following summary trials.
Words become weapons, and the judiciary becomes a conveyor belt from arrest to burial.
An Early Warning Ignored Too Often
The international community has repeatedly responded after executions, after massacres, after mass arrests.
But the warning signs are linguistic—and they are visible now.
When senior Iranian judicial and political authorities publicly:
- order “no leniency,”
- deny the possibility of deception or coercion, and
- expand the use of stigmatizing labels,
they are signaling imminent and foreseeable violations of the right to life.
Call to Action
We urgently call on:
Amnesty International
UN Special Rapporteurs
and the broader human rights mechanisms of the United Nations, to:
- Publicly recognize and document the use of weaponized language as a human rights violation in itself
- Treat such language as an early warning indicator of lethal state violence
- Issue immediate alerts when Iranian officials deploy these terms
- Hold Iranian authorities accountable for the foreseeable consequences of their words.
Silence or delay does not equal neutrality.
It enables repetition.
Conclusion
In Iran, people are not only killed by bullets, batons, or gallows.
They are killed by words—spoken first, normalized next, and enforced last.
Ignoring this language means ignoring the moment when lives can still be saved.
