TEHERAN,  - La Guida suprema iraniana, ayatollah Ali Khamenei, ha preso posizione personalmente contro la condanna a morte per blasfemia dell'intellettuale dissidente Hashem Aghajari, riconfermata nelle settimane scorse da un giudice di Hamedan, nell'ovest del Paese.

Khamenei, citato oggi da due quotidiani iraniani, ha affermato che il verdetto di morte ''non e' in linea con la legge islamica''.

Anche il vice capo dell'apparato giudiziario, Abdol Reza Izadpanah, citato oggi dall'agenzia Irna, ha confermato che Khamenei ha emesso un decreto religioso (fatwa) in cui afferma che Aghajari non si e' reso responsabile di blasfemia.

Aghajari era stato condannato a morte nell'autunno del 2002 per un discorso pronunciato ad Hamedan in cui attaccava duramente il clero sciita, al potere in Iran, e auspicava una riforma dell'Islam sul modello di quella protestante nel Cristianesimo. Il verdetto aveva provocato proteste degli studenti nelle Universita' di molte citta' del Paese.

Successivamente, nel febbraio dell'anno scorso, era stato pero' sospeso dalla Corte suprema e rinviato allo stesso giudice che lo aveva emesso. Quest'ultimo nei giorni scorsi ha pronunciato una nuova sentenza di morte, che pero', prima di diventare esecutiva, dovra' tornare alla Corte suprema.

IRAN: Iran Is Unlikely to Hang Dissident Aghajari-Lawyer

Iranian reformist academic Hashem Aghajari, whose death sentence for blasphemy in 2002 led to mass protests, is unlikely to be executed although a provincial court has upheld the sentence, his lawyer said on Saturday.

"The death sentence will definitely be quashed by the Supreme Court, if legal principles are taken into account," Aghajari's lawyer Saleh Nikbakht told Reuters.

Iranian newspapers on Saturday reported Zekrollah Ahmadi, judiciary chief in the western province of Hamadan where the sentence was reviewed, as saying Aghajari's case had been sent to the Supreme Court although no appeal had been lodged.

The ISNA students news agency reported that Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the last word on all state matters, was angered by the decision to reissue the death penalty and called on the judiciary to review the verdict.

Aghajari himself has refused to appeal against the sentence, effectively challenging the hardline judiciary to hang him for saying Muslims should not blindly follow senior clerics "like monkeys."

Shi'ite Muslims have to follow the decrees of senior clerics. By debating this point Aghajari, a history lecturer, questioned the entire system of clerical rule.

Students staged mass protests when Aghajari's sentence was first handed down in November 2002, prompting Khamenei to make his first call for a review of the case.

A provincial judge in Hamadan, carrying out the review, insisted on the death sentence in a closed-door session.

Some 600 people gathered on Tuesday at Tehran University to criticize the hardline judiciary's treatment of Aghajari, who lost a leg in the 1980-1988 war with Iraq.

His death sentence has been widely denounced in Iran, even by some Islamic conservatives who said it was a gift to reformists and Iran's Western enemies.

In a rare direct criticism this month, pro-reform President Mohammad Khatami condemned Aghajari's "unjust death sentence" and said the judge who issued it was "inexperienced."