Iran professor will not appeal sentence (INCREDIBLE HERO!!!)

Seatle Post-Inteligencer ^ | May 4, 2004 | ALI AKBAR DAREINI

[Eurotwit]

TEHRAN, Iran -- 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.

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.

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.

Aghajari, who is now imprisoned in Tehran, was a history professor at Tarbiat-e-Modarres Teachers' Training University in the city.

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."

[Eurotwit]

I have been following Aghajaris case since the initial case against him.

He is incredible courages. He is daring the mullah's to execute him. Will they blink? How will the students react?

Prayers for this courageous hero.

[Eurotwit]

Aghajari ping.

[McGavin999]

Oh boy, this is going to cause a total explosion. The young students in Iran love this man. I think he's counting on them to bring things to a head.

[jpsb]

Dead man walking, unless the USA an get Iraq under control and liberate Iran real quick.

[jpsb]

"The young students in Iran love this man"

then he will have lot's of company in Paradise.

[Eala]

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

Lord, have mercy upon his soul,
+ And grant him everlasting life.
Amen

[antaresequity]

between reformists and conservatives in Iran

I am surprised the Seattle rag didn't say liberals or progressives in lieu of reformists. Its no accident they chose the word conservatives instead of theocratic dictators or the like

[nuconvert]

THANKS.
I'm following this story, too.. He was also sentenced to lashings, among other things.

[nuconvert]

"In addition to the death sentence, Aghajari received a sentence of 74 lashes of the whip, eight years imprisonment and internal exile, and a 10-year prohibition from teaching. Aghajari has 20 days to lodge an appeal once he officially receives the text of his sentence."
(from Nov. 2002 article)

http://www.hrw.org/press/2002/11/iranacademic.htm

[nuconvert]

Hashem Aghajari

[Eurotwit]

I am convinved they are not going to kill him. I pray that he will soon live to see a free Iran.

Aghajari's speech hit at the very core of Iran's 25-year-old Islamic government, calling for a reformation in the state religion and asserting that Muslims were not "monkeys" and "should not blindly follow" religious leaders. - Al Jazeera

In June 2003, against a backcloth of pro-reform demonstrations in Tehran, Mr Aghajari was reported to be among 250 intellectuals who issued a strongly-worded declaration accusing the ruling clerics of setting themselves in the place of God. -BBC

[Eurotwit]

I remember when there was talk of an Iranian receiving the Nobel peace prize, I really hoped it was going to him.

It would have sent a REAL message, but unfortunately the nobel committe has little courage and not much good sense.

[nuconvert]

They could carry out the rest of the sentence, which will take years, and he will suffer greatly, but he would live to see a free Iran.

[nuconvert]

PoNg

[SusanTK]

Me and my husband and family were actually in Hamedan, Iran when this man made the speech that the twit judge has condemned him to die for. All he said was that the Iranian people weren't monkeys that needed clerics to rule over every aspect of their lives. He in no way insulted Islam (not that I would have cared much if he had). The day of the speech the town authorities shut the bazaar and all business down. This man had lost a leg in the Iran/Iraq war and the mullahs really fear him. The Iranian regime is inept, corrupt and is in the process of destroying the people's faith in their religion. I predict in a few decades time Iran will no longer be a Moslem country. This may sound like a fantasy but when we were in Iran I met many Christian converts and some that just didn't believe anything anymore. If the mullahs don't go back to the mosques and start performing weddings and such tney will have destroyed everything the purport to hold dear. The mad mullahs are some scared and desperate SOB's right now and executing this man is complete insanity.

[F14 Pilot]

They don't dare to kill him!

[Valin]

Apostasy? So I guess it's now apostasy to criticize the ruling Mullahs.

[ArrogantBustard]

I predict in a few decades time Iran will no longer be a Moslem country.

Persia was Zoroastrian, before it was Christian. And it was Christian before Mad Mo and his fiends came roaring out of the Arabian desert with fire and the sword. What once was, can be again.

[SusanTK]

The average Persian is incredibly proud of their pre-Islamic past. They have stubbornly held on to many ancient traditions like the Persian New Year(Now Ruz) which falls on the Spring Equinox- a Zoroastrian holiday. When my husband took me and our family to Iran Two years ago, he muttered one day when we were out walking in the city streets "those mullah bastards have turned my country into Saudi Arabia". In Tehran, in an upscale part of the city(one of the poorest planned and ugly cities in the world) we saw legions of teenagers wearing the cross. My brother-in-law said lots of people were converting to Christianity even though they are violating the law. I also met a woman who said that their were large and growing Christian groups that meet in secret to study the Bible. She was so sweet and asked me to say yhe Lord's Prayer in English and she said it to me in Farsi. Everywhere you go in Iran there are these huge portraits of Khomeini and he is portrayed as the eyes of God looking down on everyone. Young people who have grown up since the Revolution want nothing to do with a wrathful God like that. Jesus' words must sound revolutionary to kids who've endured lashings and worse just for wanting to be normal kids.

I agree that Zoroastianism will appeal to many after the fall of the mullahs. It will appeal to their national pride and from what I know of it, it seems to be a pretty decent religion- a far cry from the barbarism an intolerance of Islam as enforced in Iran today.