Hossein-Ali Montazeri condemned it. Demonstrations against the sentence began the day after it was made public on November 6. They are thought to have attracted no more than 5000 participants but nonetheless were "the most serious protests in Iran since 1999" and are thought to have provoked Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei to order a review of the verdict and a threat to use "popular forces" (basij) against the demonstrators. The sentence was later commuted to three years in jail, two years in probation, and five years' suspension of his social rights by the Supreme Court of Iran. In May 2004 the original regional court reinstated the death sentence, but the next month Iran's Supreme Court again reduced it. He was released from prison July 31, 2004 after paying a bail of $122,500, according to the Associated Press. Explanation According to Mashallah Shamsolvaezin, a "leading Iranian newspaper editor and confidant of Iranian President Mohammad Khatami" interviewed by Newsweek magazine, the arrest and stiff sentence were an attempt to distract attention from two bills to increase the power of president and curb the hard-liner conservatives' supervisory power which reformist President Khatami had introduced into Parliament. The failure of Iran's Hezbollah paramilitaries to make "a serious attempt to break up" the peaceful reformist student protests over the sentence was thought to be associated with Supreme Leader Khamenei's implicit criticism of the sentence and the "impartiality" of his failing to side with conservative hardliners. Publications The Role Of The Policies Of The Successors Of The Malikshah In The Political Instability Of The Seljuk State, 2018 (Co-author) The challenge of carpet job-shop in the Qajar period with developments affected by the Industrial Revolution, Journal of Iranian Islamic Period History 2021. (Co-author) The Influence of Nader Shah's Militarism Policies on the Iranian Foreign Trade, Journal of Iranian Islamic Period History 2018. (Co-author) Awards and honors Jan Karski Award for Moral Courage (2003) See also Human rights in Islamic Republic of Iran Chained Murders of Iran References External links BBC Persian article on Aghajari's new sentence Text of offending June 2002 speech Hashem Aghajari - European Parliament hrw.org, November 2002, Iran: Academic’s Death Sentence Condemned Hashem Aghajari at nawaat.org Hashem Aghari- Digital Library Hashem Aghajari's profile at Modares University Hashem Aghajari case at Amnesty International Hashem Aghari's list of other publications Iranian essayists Iranian writers Living people 1957 births Mojahedin of the Islamic Revolution of Iran Organization