Hundreds of Iranian students protested for a second...

Hundreds of Iranian students protested for a second day, outraged at a death sentence for blasphemy imposed on a reformist academic that has ignited a battle for political control of the Islamic Republic. The student protests, the biggest and most vocal pro-reform demonstrations for more than three years, came as Iran's reformist-controlled parliament approved a draft bill to limit the power of the hardline judiciary. "This verdict shows our judiciary hasn't improved even a little bit. This is a medieval verdict," Hossein Loqmanian, one of two MPs who resigned over Aghajari's death sentence, told Reuters. Around 500 students crammed into an auditorium at Tehran University to hear speaker after speaker condemn the court verdict and sharply criticise the country's clerical and political leaders. "We want Aghajari and his lawyer not to appeal the verdict to see what happens to him. If he is hanged, we will be next to him," one male student said to wild cheers and applause. "They are executing a professor of the university just for speaking his opinion," said another. Witnesses said the speeches were bolder than any heard from the student body for several years. Iran's student movement, a key supporter of Khatami's reforms, had been subdued and rent by internal squabbles since a fierce security clampdown during six days of student-led unrest in 1999 that led to the arrest of many student leaders. Khatami did not escape criticism at the rally. Radical reformists are calling on Khatami to resign if, as expected, the conservative-controlled Guardian Council blocks his proposed legislation. Analysts say the recent arrest of a number of reformists, the death sentence against Aghajari and the closure of several polling institutes linked to Khatami's government shows the conservatives are in no mood to compromise.