IRAN: AGHAJARI, MAGISTRATURA CONFERMA APPELLO

TEHERAN, 2 DIC - La magistratura iraniana ha confermato oggi che l'avvocato dell'intellettuale Hashem Aghajari, condannato a morte per blasfemia, ha presentato ricorso in appello e ha detto che il secondo grado di giudizio si svolgera' a Teheran ''al piu' presto''.

   L'annuncio e' stato fatto da Zekrollah Ahmadi, capo del Dipartimento di giustizia di Hamadan, dove Aghajari e' stato condannato alla pena capitale in primo grado.

   L'appello ha detto Ahmadi, citato dall'agenzia 'Irna', e' stato presentato dal legale di Aghajari oggi, ultimo giorno utile.

IRAN:  Lawyer Appeals Iran Dissident's Death Sentence

 A lawyer for Iranian dissident Hashem Aghajari has appealed his client's death sentence which had sparked Iran's largest pro-reform student protests for three years, a judiciary official said on Monday.

 The appeal offers a way of defusing tension between Iran's reformist and hardline factions who are locked in a battle of wills over the sentence as well as two bills backed by moderate President Mohammad Khatami challenging conservative power.

 "The lawyer appealed on November 30, but today we received the appeal by post," Zekrollah Ahmadi, head of judiciary in the western city of Hamedan where the sentence was issued, told Reuters.

 Aghajari was condemned to hang last month after he questioned clerical rule saying believers should not blindly follow senior clerics "like monkeys."

 2 weeks of largely peaceful student strikes and sit-ins followed, unnerving conservatives with their broader calls for a referendum on the future nature of the Islamic Republic.

 Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei threatened to unleash "popular forces" -- seen as a reference to the hardline Basij militia -- to break up the protests if necessary.

 The Tehran history lecturer steadfastly has refused to appeal the sentence himself challenging the authority of the court. But his lawyer said last week he would launch his own appeal independently of his client.

 A senior reformist politician close to the case told Reuters that while Aghajari had been against appealing himself, he had not objected to his lawyer doing it for him.

 Khamenei had tried to reduce tension over the campus protests by ordering a review of the verdict, but the hardline judiciary apparently ignored the order in a rare act of defiance of Iran's most powerful figure.

 Reformers allied to Khatami accused conservatives of trying to prolong tension in order to impose emergency rule on the nation of 63 million people and derail the soft-spoken president's proposed legislation seeking more powers.

Khatami has introduced 2 bills to parliament aiming to curb the power of the judiciary and the conservative-dominated Guardian Council to vet election candidates.

But, like all legislation, the bills have first to be approved by the 12-man Guardian Council which analysts say is unlikely to agree to shedding some of its own powers.