Iran judiciary hits back academic's death penalty critics

By: Sheikh Muhammad Khurasani

TEHRAN, Iran: Iranian judiciary while hitting back on Wednesday at its critics has defended the verdict of death sentence to a university lecturer Hashem Aghajari after he was convicted of blasphemy.

In a statement issued a week after Aghajari’s conviction, the judiciary's public relations office said: “How can one defend someone who claims to be a Muslim but casts doubt on the principles of the religion... and qualifies as monkeys those who follow religious dignitaries.”

“Do these comments, repeated by the accused a number of times during his trial, not justify such a verdict by a believing and Muslim judge?” the statement asked.

Aghajari called in a speech for a reform of Iran's state Shiite religion, and said Muslims were not “monkeys” who should blindly follow the teachings of senior clerics.

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