Thousands of Iranian university students stepped up protests over the sentencing to death of a popular pro-reform academic on Monday, however the hard-line judiciary bluntly told critics of the verdict to keep to their own business.
Nearly 2,000 students and teachers close to Hashem Aghajari, condemned to die last week for questioning the Iranian Shiite Muslim clergy's right to rule, participated in what witnesses describe was the Islamic republic's largest protest gatherings in years.
One student activist openly expressed his "condolences for the death of thought and the imprisonment of liberty", signaling the university campus has once again become a center for dissent, according to AFP.
"Aghjari knows that his students are vigilant and will defend liberty to the last drop of their blood," the gathering was told as students listened to a recording of one of his lectures.
"To execute Aghajari is to execute religious renewal."
Aghajari was sentenced to death for apostasy and insulting the leaders of early Islam. (Albawaba.com)
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
