Iranian dissident Hashem Aghajari, sentenced to death...

Iranian dissident Hashem Aghajari, sentenced to death in 2002 for blasphemy, was been handed a five-year jail term following his re-trial.
"I am very happy. I feel very proud that what I said all along has been recognised. He was not an apostate and did not insult the prophet," his lawyer Saleh Nikbakht said. The dissident also received five years' deprivation of his social rights, which were commence after his term in prison ended .
The leftist activist, who lost a leg fighting in the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war, sparked the wrath of Iran's powerful hardliners when he said in a speech to students in Hamedan that Muslims were not "monkeys" and "should not blindly follow" religious leaders.