In an open letter to the press, Iranian dissident academic...

In an open letter to the press, Iranian dissident academic Hashim Aghajari took on his conservative opponents, mocking his death sentence for blasphemy as a political verdict. Aghajari, who drew the anger of the country's religious establishment when he delivered a speech in July questioning clerics' right to rule in Iran, dismissed his death sentence as "resembling a political communiqué rather than a court decision." Even as Iran's hardline judiciary said it would review his sentence, Aghajari accused the judge who handed him his death sentence on November 6 of "not respecting the principle of impartiality." He said it was "certain" he would be acquitted in a public trial "where popular feelings will be taken into account." The judiciary's decision to review his case after Aghajari's lawyer filed an appeal ended a tense standoff between the courts and the disabled dissident whose death sentence sparked two weeks of street protests by Iranian students in November.