Cleric seeks death penalty for journalist

The head of Iran's Assembly of Experts, Great Ayatollah Ali Meshkini, has sought the death penalty for a pro-reform journalist who allegedly insulted Prophet Mohammed (PBUH) in a speech in the western city of Hamedan.

Speaking during the Friday prayers in the holy city of Qom, Ayatollah Meshkini said: "The judge should consider a verdict of death penalty for the man." Meshkini said offending Islam and the clerics is unforgivable and can lead to a death penalty.

Controversial pro-reform journalist Hashem Aghajari, who allegedly offended the powerful Shi'ite clergy, was arrested on a court order issued in the western city of Hamedan.

But he was released later on a $250,000 bail.

"People! Is it true that a man like him (Aghajari) goes to Hamedan and mocks Islam and the clerics and the audience laughs at us?" Meshkini asked.

Aghajari angered the clergy in mid-June when he said Muslims "should not blindly" emulate religious leaders and called for a "religious renewal" of Shi'ite Islam, in a speech delivered in Hamedan.

He was freed provisionally after posting bail bond following a July 14 court hearing behind closed doors, but was later accused of "insulting the Prophet (PBUH)," a serious charge which carries a death sentence.

He rejected this charge, saying the "judge was not able to show me one phrase of my speech that could be considered as an insult."

Aghajari's remarks placed the country's conservatives and the reformists at loggerheads, and he was bitterly criticised by President Mohammed Khatami in early July.

Khatami, himself a mid-ranking cleric, intervened in an attempt to prevent the factional tension from getting out of hand. Aghajari, who is a member of the central core of the Islamic Revolution Mojahedin Organisa-tion (IRMO) was bitterly attacked by his hardliner rivals.

After Saeed Hajarian, a reformist and a top strategist, who was shot in the head and was nearly killed by a right-wing extremist two years ago, the IRMO turned to be reformists' think-tank.

However, the extremist right-wing factions aiming to eradicate it from President Khatami's camp have repeatedly targeted it.

Earlier in May, Behzad Nabavi, a powerful reformist figure and the head of the IRMO, was accused of embezzlement and financial corruption in a quasi-state oil company, Petro-Pars.

His case was resolved after the intervention of the president who strongly backed him.

Meanwhile, several protests also took place against Aghajari in several cities in Iran, notably in the holy city of Qom.

Even the Senior Clerics Assembly, a powerful conservative religious group in Qom, called the IRMO un-Islamic and asked all 'believers' not to cooperate with them.