An Iranian court has upheld on appeal a seven-year sentence against a reformist cleric, initially sentenced to death for saying women should be free to decide whether to wear a veil, judicial sources said. Hojatoleslam Hassan Yussefi Eshkevari made his views known on the veil in Berlin in April 2000 during a conference on Islamic reforms, provoking a crisis between moderate President Khatami and hardline politicians. Eshkevari's death sentence was never confirmed officially, but his family said it was handed down by a special tribunal that handles crimes by members of the clergy. News of the sentence sparked local and international protests. Last autumn, Eshkevari's sentence was commuted to seven years, of which four were for his views on the veil, one for taking part in the conference and two for spreading "lies" on the murder of several intellectuals in 1998 implicating members of the intelligence ministry. He was also prohibited from wearing the traditional Iranian clerical robes.
It's probably just as well he doesn't wear the traditional Iranian clerical robes. He could be swept up by accident with the rest of them when the Medes and Persians decide to hang all the theocrats... One day it'll come, and they'll wonder why they waited so long. |