Iran's leading academic dissident Hashem Aghajari was...

Iran's leading academic dissident Hashem Aghajari was freed on bail on after two years in jail facing the death penalty for telling Iranians not to follow their clerical leaders like "monkeys". Students took to the streets in violent protests in 2002 after the history lecturer was sentenced to hang for blasphemy.
"I hope there will come a day when no-one goes to prison in Iran for his opinions, let alone be sentenced to death," Aghajari, speaking through his tears, told reporters outside his apartment in north Tehran.