A university professor has decided not to appeal a reinstated death sentence, effectively challenging Iran's hard-line judges to execute him for criticizing clerical rule, his lawyer said Tuesday. The original sentence handed down to Hashem Aghajari in 2002 provoked massive student demonstrations and street battles with hard-line vigilantes. The uproar highlighted the power struggle between reformists and conservatives in Iran. The Supreme Court overturned the death penalty last year. But the original court in the western province of Hamedan province has reinstated it, a provincial judicial official disclosed Monday. "Professor Aghajari told me Monday evening that his family and I have no right to appeal the new death sentence," Saleh Nikbakht told reporters Tuesday. Aghajari was determined to challenge the judiciary to carry out the sentence, Nikbakht said. "If not appealed, the sentence will be final and the judiciary will have to carry it out," he said.
| Would this provide the needed spark? |
In 2002, Aghajari had also instructed Nikbakht not to file an appeal, but the lawyer did appeal to the Supreme Court. On Tuesday, Nikbakht said this time he would heed Aghajari's instructions. The original sentence came after the Hamedan court convicted Aghajari of insulting Islam and questioning the rule of the clerics in a speech he gave to students in the province. In the new finding, the court convicted Aghajari of apostasy, or the betrayal of Islam. The protests against the original sentence caused Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, to take the rare step of ordering a judicial review.
| You'd think Khamenei wouldn't like having a low-level court challenge him like this. |
Nikbakht said Tuesday the Hamedan court had ignored Khamenei's order and the Supreme Court's finding that the death sentence was inconsistent with the charges. "Everything has returned to square one," Nikbakht said. "It's a disgusting verdict and a great insult to the judicial system." The lawyer said the court was penalizing a person who had dedicated his life to promoting a moderate version of Islam.
| But not the approved version. |
The lawyer said he had received many death threats by telephone recently. "Let everybody know that any danger to my life will be because of my defending Aghajari," he told a news conference. President Mohammad Khatami has criticized the court that issued the initial death sentence, saying Aghajari had done more for Iran than "that inexperienced judge who unjustly accused him of apostasy."
| But nobody cares what he thinks. |
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