Iranian dissident intellectual Hashem Aghajari, condemned...

Iranian dissident intellectual Hashem Aghajari, condemned to death for blasphemy after questioning the power of the clergy, was to have his case re-examined after February's parliamentary elections, a judiciary official said. "To preserve calm before the elections, the examination of the case of Hashem Aghajari will be made after the voting and in the (Iranian) New Year," which begins March 21, the Iran newspaper quoted Zekrollah Ahmadi as saying. In the summer of 2002, the disabled war veteran and history professor delivered an explosive speech in Hamedan directed at the very core of Iran's 25-year-old Islamic regime. Aghajari called for a "religious renewal" of Shiite Islam, espoused a major structural shake-up in Iran's religion of state, and asserted that Muslims were not "monkeys" and "should not blindly follow" religious leaders. In November 2002, a judge in the western city of Hamedan ruled that Aghajari had committed blasphemy and, in line with Islamic and Iranian law, deserved to die. But following a week of protests by students and complaints by reformist government officials, Khamenei stepped in and demanded the sentence be reviewed. In January 2003, the supreme court annulled the verdict and ordered a re-trial. "It has been a year since the court should decide," complained one cleric and MP, Nasser Ghavami, who heads the reformist-held parliament's justice commission. "Mr Aghajari was condemned to death, and what new verdict could be so severe that it causes problems during the elections?" he asked.