Students claimed a victory for freedom of speech as...

Students claimed a victory for freedom of speech as Iran's supreme leader ordered a review of the death sentence against dissident academic Hashem Aghajari. "Based on the request of hundreds of university professors, the leader ordered the judiciary to carefully review this case," the hardline Jomhuri-ye Eslami newspaper reported. "An appeals court has been authorised to carefully review Aghajari's case." The newspaper, seen as being close to Khamenei, said the death sentence would most likely be overturned on appeal. Students greeted the news as a victory and said they would consider ending mass protests at campuses across the country. "There's no need for the students to protest now. They presented and reached their goal which was the cancellation of the verdict," said one student leader, who declined to be named. "It's a big victory for students in defence of freedom of expression," he told Reuters by telephone. The judiciary, which has been a major thorn in the side of President Khatami's reform efforts, closing scores of liberal newspapers and jailing pro-reform intellectuals and journalists, emerged weaker from the case, analysts said. "The judiciary will have to be more careful in future... This was a setback for them," said Hamid Reza Jalaipour, lecturer in political science at Tehran University. Parliament Speaker Mehdi Karroubi thanked Khamenei for intervening. "I would particularly like to thank the leader for taking into account the importance of blood and human life in Islam," he was quoted as saying by the state IRNA news agency. At the Shahid Beheshti University in north Tehran several hundred students gathered for a rally arranged before news of the Aghajari case review. Majid Hajbabaee, one of the organisers, said the students had other, unfulfilled demands. "We want the release of all political prisoners and that nobody be jailed for expressing their opinion".