Iran Parliament Joins Death Sentence Protest

Nearly two-thirds of Iran’s parliament called Sunday for lifting the death sentence for a reformist scholar convicted of insulting Islam and questioning hard-line clerics.

Parliament Speaker Mehdi Karrubi, in a speech broadcast live on state-run Tehran radio, said that a hard-line court’s sentence against university professor Hashem Aghajari was a “disgusting” verdict and that the scholar should be released. He called on the hard-line judiciary to overturn the sentence “before we pay a heavier price for it.”

After Karrubi’s speech, 181 members of the 290-seat parliament signed a letter urging the lifting of the death sentence.

The conviction against Aghajari, a history professor at Tehran University, stems from a June speech in which he said that the clerics’ teachings on Islam were considered sacred simply because they were part of history and that each new generation should be able to interpret the faith on its own.

The comments enraged hard-liners, who organized street demonstrations and urged the courts to prosecute Aghajari.

Aghajari was detained in August and remains in custody. He was informed of the death sentence Wednesday.

Opposition against the sentence is building. Two lawmakers have resigned in protest, and hundreds of students held a demonstration Saturday at Tehran University. A second student demonstration was held Sunday.

About 500 students crammed into an auditorium to hear speakers condemn the verdict and sharply criticize Iran’s clerical and political leaders. Witnesses said the speeches were bolder than any heard from the student body in several years.

“We want Aghajari and his lawyer not to appeal the verdict to see what happens to him. If he is hanged, we will be next to him,” one male student said to wild cheers and applause.

“They are executing a professor of the university just for speaking his opinion,” said another.