Nearly two-thirds of Iran's parliament this afternoon called for the lifting the death sentence of a reformist scholar convicted of insulting Islam and questioning hard-line clerics.
Parliament Speaker Mehdi Karroubi, in a speech broadcast live on state-run Tehran radio, said a hard-line court's sentence against university professor Hashem Aghajari was a "disgusting" verdict and the scholar should be released.
Responding to Karroubi's plea, 181 members of the 290-seat parliament signed a letter urging the lifting of the death sentence.
Aghajari, a history professor at Tarbiat-e-Modarres University in Tehran, was convicted of insulting the Prophet Muhammad and questioning the hard-line clergy's interpretation of Islam.
His conviction stems from a June speech in which he said the clerics' teachings on Islam were considered sacred simply because they were part of history and that each new generation should be able to interpret the faith on its own.
The comments enraged hard-liners, who organised street demonstrations in several Iranian cities and urged the courts to prosecute Aghajari, a supporter of social and political reforms of President Mohammad Khatami.
Aghajari was detained in August after a closed hearing and remains in custody. He was informed of the death ruling on Wednesday.
Opposition against the sentence is building. Two lawmakers from Hamedan province have resigned in protest and hundreds of students held a demonstration yesterday at Tehran University.
Iran's most senior dissident cleric also condemned the sentence. "A minority group resorts to oppressive methods in the name of Islam to remain in power against the wishes of the nation," said Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, under house arrest since 1997 for questioning clerical rule.
AP