Students in Iran defy call to end death term protest

Thousands of Iranian students brushed aside a warning from Iran's supreme leader and demonstrated for the fourth day running yesterday against a death sentence imposed on a dissident academic.

The protesters also called on the country's elected President, Mohammad Khatami, to resign rather than see his reforms emasculated by the hardline clerics who hold the power of veto on all new legislation.

At Tehran University, once a hotbed of Islamic revolutionary fervour against the Shah of Iran, 5,000 students gathered to protest in support of Hashem Aghajari, who has been sentenced to hang for questioning the rule of the mullahs. "The execution of Aghajari is the execution of the university," they chanted. "Political prisoners should be freed."

Aghajari, 45, was convicted of blasphemy and insulting Islamic principles in a speech to a small gathering. The court also sentenced him to eight years in exile and 74 lashes.

The protests come as Mr Khatami is attempting to wrest back authority from clerical rivals who control the security services, courts, armed forces and the broadcast media.

The supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has warned that he will order a crackdown if the crisis continues. He has called on the parliament, government and judiciary to resolve their differences or he will "use the popular forces to intervene", he said in comments broadcast on television. "I hope that will never happen," he added.

President Khatami's allies are pushing two draft bills to challenge the clerics' control of the judiciary and a constitutional watchdog body. The death sentence is seen as an attempt to intimidate parliament into abandoning the bills but the President's aides have said that he will step down if his reforms are thwarted.