The case against prominent Iranian dissident Hasham...

The case against prominent Iranian dissident Hasham Aghajari, whose death sentence for blasphemy was quashed by the Islamic republic's supreme court, was handed over to a Tehran court for a "full reexamination", press reports said. A history professor at Tehran University, Aghajari was convicted of blasphemy by a judge in the western city of Hamedan in November 2002 after he called for a reformation in Iran's state Shiite Muslim religion. The reports gave no details on when the new hearings would take place. According to Iranian criminal law, any death sentence has to be given Supreme Court scrutiny regardless of a defendant's refusal to appeal -- a defiant position that Aghajari had taken.