'Sentence revoked' on Iran academic

The history professor had been condemned to death in November for insulting Islam and questioning clerical rule during a speech.

"The death sentence against Aghajari has been revoked by a majority of votes by the review judges," said Ayatollah Mohammad Sajjadi, one of the judges who heard an appeal of Mr Aghajari's case on Friday.

"The decision came after weeks of careful study and scrutinising of Aghajari's entire speech. Three out of four judges decided that the charges against Aghajari was not compatible with his speech," he said in remarks quoted by the Associated Press news agency.

The Supreme Court would refer Mr Aghajari's case to an appeal court in Hamedan - the western Iranian city where he was convicted - for a review the remainder of his sentence, Sajjadi added.

For his remarks in June, Mr Aghajari was also sentenced to 74 lashes, banned from teaching for 10 years and banished to three remote cities for eight years.

Mr Aghajari enraged conservatives when he said that Muslims should not uncritically follow the line laid down by Islamic clerics "like monkeys".

He questioned why clerics alone had the right to interpret Islam, which led many to accuse him of being "Iran's Salman Rushdie".

President's protest

The sentencing of the academic to death led to large-scale student protests, highlighting the power struggle between the country's liberals and hard-liners.

Iran's parliament denounced the verdict as "disgusting" and President Mohammad Khatami also condemned it.

But hard-liners, who dominate the judiciary and police, defended the verdict.

Professor Aghajari initially said he would not appeal against the death sentence, challenging the judiciary to carry it out. But his lawyer, Saleh Nikbakht, filed an appeal on 2 December despite his client's objections.

Last week Mr Nikbakht predicted that the review of the death sentence would be favourable.

Human rights group Amnesty International has taken up the case of Professor Aghajari, a 45-year-old veteran of the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war.