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The U.S.-based Human Rights Watch urged Iran to release a dissident Iranian cleric who it said was facing the death penalty and was being denied his own lawyer at a trial behind closed doors. The hardline court which is controlled by supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and is independent of the judiciary has been instrumental in prosecuting reformist clerics in the past. "Human Rights Watch calls for the dropping of all charges against Hojatoleslam Eshkevari and for his immediate release from detention. His and other scholars' right to free expression and to participate freely in public life in Iran should be respected," the group said. Sources close to the cleric told Reuters he had been indicted on three charges: apostasy, spreading corruption on earth and waging war against God, all of which carry the death penalty according to Iran's strict interpretation of Islamic criminal law.