Dissident’s Death Sentence Is Revoked
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Iran’s theocratic judiciary has revoked the death sentence of dissident academic Hashem Aghajari, a penalty that sparked mass student protests in 2002, judicial officials said.
Aghajari was convicted of blasphemy for a speech in which he said Muslims were not “monkeys” who should blindly follow the teachings of senior clerics.
His comments were deemed by some to be a challenge to Iran’s clerical establishment, and analysts saw the case as a test of the limits of free speech in the country.
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