Hope for condemned scholar

last updated 8 January 2015

Tehran, Iran

A Supreme Court judge reviewing the death sentence given to a university professor for insulting Islam said this week that it should be overturned. The professor, Hashem Aghajari, enraged the powerful mullahs last year when he questioned why only clerics had the right to interpret Islam. But his death sentence was condemned by Iran’s reform-minded parliament as well as the president, and it sparked student protests across the country. Ayatollah Muhammad Sajjadi, one of three judges considering the appeal, said he found the death verdict to be “contrary to religious principles.” If just one of the other two judges agrees, Aghajari will be resentenced.