|
Iranian cleric jailed for seven years for liberal views on veil
Middle East Times (14.03.2003)/ HRWF Int. (14.03.2003) - Website: http://www.hrwf.net - Email : info@hrwf.net - An Iranian court has upheld on appeal a seven-year sentence against a reformist cleric, initially sentenced to death for saying women should be free to decide whether to wear a veil, judicial sources said.
Hojatoleslam Hassan Yussefi Echkevari made his views known on the veil in Berlin in April 2000 during a conference on Islamic reforms, provoking a crisis between moderate President Mohammad Khatami and hardline politicians.
Echkevari's death sentence was never confirmed officially, but his family said it was handed down by a special tribunal that handles crimes by members of the clergy. News of the sentence sparked local and international protests.
Last autumn, Echkevari's sentence was commuted to seven years, of which four were for his views on the veil, one for taking part in the conference and two for spreading "lies" on the murder of several intellectuals in 1998 implicating members of the intelligence ministry.
He was also prohibited from wearing the traditional Iranian clerical robes.
The cleric's son, Mahmoud, confirmed the sentence was upheld on appeal.
"Since my father served 31 months already in prison, he has 53 months left," he added.
Television footage of Echkevari's speech at the Berlin conference angered conservatives, with many calling for the imprisonment or death of reformists.
The most notable recent case has been that of intellectual Hachem Aghajari, sentenced to death in November for publicly calling for "a protestant version of Islam" and that Muslims shouldn't "blindly follow ... religious leaders".
Back to the Table of Contents
Iran lifts a disputed death sentence
Clerics, students clashed over case
by Elizabeth Neuffer
The Boston Globe (15.02.2003)/ HRWF Int. (18.02.2003) - Website http://www.hrwf.net - Email info@hrwf.net - Iran's Supreme Court, in a ruling likely to heighten tensions between reformists and conservatives, lifted a controversial death sentence yesterday against a university professor whose case ignited nationwide protests last fall.
The professor, Hashem Aghajari, was condemned to death for a speech he delivered last June in which he asked why only clerics could interpret Islam. Conservatives swiftly accused him of insulting Islam and questioning clerical rule, which is considered blasphemy in this country.
But three members of the four-judge panel that heard his appeal deemed the death sentence inappropriate, according to one of the judges. The panel sat in Qom, a religious center. ''The decision came after weeks of careful study and scrutinizing of Aghajari's entire speech,'' said Judge Ayatollah Mohammad Sajjadi.
It remained unclear yesterday what conservative clerics, who have threatened to execute Aghajari themselves if the case was overturned, might do. The court referred the remaining charges against Aghajari -- which could bring banishment, lashings, and a ban on teaching -- to the city of Hamedan, where he was convicted.
Yesterday's ruling is likely to stoke the long-running power struggle between conservatives and reformists in Iran, which is governed by a cleric, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, but has an elected president and Parliament. Thousands of students took to the streets in November to protest Aghajari's death sentence in the largest demonstrations seen in Iran in three years. The rallies, which began peacefully, turned violent after hard-line militia attacked the demonstrators. University authorities then refused to issue protest permits. The lifting of the death sentence will be applauded by Iran's mostly reformist Parliament, which had condemned the sentence as ''disgusting.'' The country's reformist president, Mohammad Khatami, said last year the death sentence should ''never have been issued.''
Yesterday's ruling, however, is not likely to please Iran's conservatives, who hold sway in the nation's judiciary and its police, and believe reformists linked to Khatami are trying to undermine Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution.
In recent years, the judiciary has stepped up its efforts to crack down on Iran's reformist movement by jailing key intellectuals and shutting down dozens of newspapers. Just two months ago, two student newspapers, ''Spring'' and ''New Life,'' were ordered closed.
Such efforts have only convinced Iran's students that the country's conservatives are desperately trying to curb free speech. Student leaders, many of whom were arrested during last year's protests, have vowed to continue their fight peacefully.
''Our priorities are social and political freedom,'' said Saeed Razavi Faqih, a 37-year-old student leader who was among those arrested. '' But it is we who advocate peace and they [the conservatives] who advocate violence.'' Faqih and other activists said they will organize a referendum on the political future of the Islamic Republic -- first on campuses and then across the country.
''We don't want to give a pretext to conservatives,'' for more arrests and crackdowns, said Faqih, explaining why the students were turning from demonstrations to a referendum. ''We don't want a revolution, but we don't want to accept the present situation, either.''
Iran has a long history of student activism. Students played a key role in the 1979 revolution, but took to the streets in 1999 to demand liberalization.
Khatami called for a halt to student protests last fall after the supreme religious leader, Khamenei, called for a review of the Aghajari case.
Aghajari had at first refused to appeal his sentence, daring the country's judiciary to carry out his execution in the face of a public outcry. But his lawyer later moved to have the verdict appealed.
Back to the Table of Contents
Iranian scholar 'may escape execution'
BBC News (08.02.2003)/ HRWF Int. (12.02.2003) - Website http://www.hrwf.net - Email info@hrwf.net - The lawyer for Hashem Aghajari, the Iranian academic sentenced to death for apostasy, has said he expects the supreme court's review of the case next week to be favourable.
But Saleh Nikbakht denied that he had said the court would quash the ruling.
Suggestions that the death penalty had been overturned led to widespread rioting on Saturday with clerics threatening to carry out the execution themselves.
"I just said that it has been heard that the verdict was overturned," said Mr Nikbakht.
Meanwhile on Saturday, a local head of Iran's main reformist party, the Islamic Iran Participation Front (IIPF), began a six-month jail sentence for voicing support for Professor Aghajari.
The fact that the supreme court based in the holy city of Qom is reviewing Professor Aghajari's case indicates "the death sentence has almost certainly been revoked," say legal experts.
"If politics don't interfere in the case, the verdict can never be upheld by the Supreme Court," Naser Qavami head of the parliament's judicial committee told Associated Press.
'Monkeys'
Professor Aghajari enraged conservatives last summer when he said that Muslims should not uncritically follow the line laid down by Islamic clerics "like monkeys".
He questioned why clerics alone had the right to interpret Islam, which led many to accuse him of being "Iran's Salman Rushdie".
But the sentencing of the academic to death led to student protests.
Professor Aghajari has said that he will not appeal against the death sentence.
According to his lawyer, he believes that "those who have issued this verdict have to implement it if they think it is right or else the judiciary has to handle it".
In addition to the death penalty, he was sentenced to eight years' internal exile in remote areas of Iran and banned from teaching for 10 years.
The human rights group, Amnesty International, has taken up his case.
The organisation says the academic is in need of medical attention because of problems with the remaining part of his right leg.
Professor Aghajari, a 45-year-old war veteran, was disabled during the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq conflict.
Back to the Table of Contents |
