Iran's Vice President Calls for Revocation of Blasphemy Case

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Thursday, November 21, 2002

Iran's Vice President Calls for Revocation of Blasphemy Case

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Iranian Vice President for Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Mohammad Ali Abtahi on Wednesday called for immediate revocation of controversial case of dissident scholar Hashem Aghajari who was condemned to hang on charge of blasphemy.

Aghajari's death sentence has sparks rounds of clash between pro-reform students and vigilantes as well as different government branches.

The official IRNA news agency quoted Abtahi as saying the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's order to review Aghajari's death sentence does not mean that it will fall into the ordinary proceedings.

"If the case were due to fall into the ordinary proceedings as it should according to the legal provisions, there would be no needfor the supreme leader's intervention," Abtahi added.

He warned that prolongation of the case will harm national interest and the judiciary should heed the national interests in its performance.

Outspoken Aghajari was sentenced to death by a court of first order in Hamedan Province on Nov. 6, in addition to eight years in prison as well as 74 lashes and being barred from teaching for 10 years.

The court said that a Muslim who "qualifies as monkeys those whofollow religious dignitaries" should be executed.

The verdict, however, has been widely denounced as "too harsh" as several thousands of students and teachers protested the so-called "medieval ruling" national wide since the ruling was issue two weeks ago.

Fearing the tension could run out of control, Iran's Supreme Leader Khamenei, who has the final say in all state matters, has ordered to study the case carefully and recommended the judiciary not to act in a way to become open to criticism.

Urging the judiciary to revoke the verdict, Iran's Majlis (parliament) Speaker Mahdi Karrubi said on Tuesday that Khamenei's intervention means that the verdict should be retracted as soon as possible, despite the Judiciary's stance that the court would follow "normal legal procedures to reconsider the verdict."

In another development, rival rallies ware held in Tehran on Tuesday by pro-reform students and hardline Basijis (voluntary forces) over Aghajari's case.

The reformist daily Etemad reported that hardline vigilantes beat up pro-reform students who had gathered in Tehran's Sharif University of Technology to protest Aghajari's death sentence.

One leading member of the main pro-reform student group, the Unity Consolidation Office, has announced that the student rally has ended while other students vowed to protest until they get a formal apology from judiciary chief Ayatollah Hashemi Shahroudi.

The students' move has gained credit from some 160 deputies in the reformist-majority Majlis.

In a statement released on Wednesday, the parliamentarians appreciated the students and the academics for staging sit-in protests while calling on them to observe law in holding any demonstrations.

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