Author: Report
Publication: Rediff on Net
Date: May 11, 2004
URL: http://in.rediff.com/news/2004/may/11iran.htm
The death sentence on a liberal
Iranian academic who was charged with blasphemy has been upheld, say agencies.
Hashem Aghajari, a history professor
at a Tehran college, was arrested and sentenced to death by a provincial
court after a speech in August 2002, where he said Muslims were not "monkeys"
and "should not blindly follow" the Mullahs or clerics.
Following widespread protests by
students and liberals, the Supreme Court had sent the case back to the
provincial court for a review and retrial in January 2003.
Earlier this month, the provincial
court re-imposed the death sentence, Aghajari's lawyer Saleh Nikbakht said
Monday. Though the provincial judge had failed to clear any of the shortcomings
pointed out by the Supreme Court, Aghajari, a war veteran who lost a leg
in the 1980-88 war with Iraq, had refused to appeal again, Nikbakht said.
Apart from the death sentence for
apostasy and insulting the early imams, he received further sentences of
a 10-year ban on teaching, eight years in jail and 74 lashes for lesser
offences, said the BBC.
