Iran's Supreme Court, in a ruling likely to heighten tensions between reformists and conservatives, lifted a controversial death sentence yesterday against a university professor whose case ignited nationwide protests last fall.
The professor, Hashem Aghajari, was condemned to death for a speech he delivered last June in which he asked why only clerics could interpret Islam. Conservatives swiftly accused him of insulting Islam and questioning clerical rule, which is considered blasphemy in this country.
But three members of the four-judge panel that heard his appeal deemed the death sentence inappropriate, according to one of the judges. The panel sat in Qom, a religious center. ''The decision came after weeks of careful study and scrutinizing of Aghajari's entire speech,'' said Judge Ayatollah Mohammad Sajjadi.
It remained unclear yesterday what conservative clerics, who have threatened to execute Aghajari themselves if the case was overturned, might do.
The court referred the remaining charges against Aghajari -- which could bring banishment, lashings, and a ban on teaching -- to the city of Hamedan, where he was convicted.
Yesterday's ruling is likely to stoke the long-running power struggle between conservatives and reformists in Iran, which is governed by a cleric, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, but has an elected president and Parliament.
Thousands of students took to the streets in November to protest Aghajari's death sentence in the largest demonstrations seen in Iran in three years. The rallies, which began peacefully, turned violent after hard-line militia attacked the demonstrators. University authorities then refused to issue protest permits. The lifting of the death sentence will be applauded by Iran's mostly reformist Parliament, which had condemned the sentence as ''disgusting.'' The country's reformist president, Mohammad Khatami, said last year the death sentence should ''never have been issued.''
Yesterday's ruling, however, is not likely to please Iran's conservatives, who hold sway in the nation's judiciary and its police, and believe reformists linked to Khatami are trying to undermine Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution.
In recent years, the judiciary has stepped up its efforts to crack down on Iran's reformist movement by jailing key intellectuals and shutting down dozens of newspapers. Just two months ago, two student newspapers, ''Spring'' and ''New Life,'' were ordered closed.
Such efforts have only convinced Iran's students that the country's conservatives are desperately trying to curb free speech. Student leaders, many of whom were arrested during last year's protests, have vowed to continue their fight peacefully.
''Our priorities are social and political freedom,'' said Saeed Razavi Faqih, a 37-year-old student leader who was among those arrested. '' But it is we who advocate peace and they [the conservatives] who advocate violence.''
Faqih and other activists said they will organize a referendum on the political future of the Islamic Republic -- first on campuses and then across the country.
''We don't want to give a pretext to conservatives,'' for more arrests and crackdowns, said Faqih, explaining why the students were turning from demonstrations to a referendum. ''We don't want a revolution, but we don't want to accept the present situation, either.''
Iran has a long history of student activism. Students played a key role in the 1979 revolution, but took to the streets in 1999 to demand liberalization.
Khatami called for a halt to student protests last fall after the supreme religious leader, Khamenei, called for a review of the Aghajari case.
Aghajari had at first refused to appeal his sentence, daring the country's judiciary to carry out his execution in the face of a public outcry. But his lawyer later moved to have the verdict appealed.