University lecturer Hashem Aghajari was condemned to death last November by a hardline regional court for questioning clerical rule in a speech. His sentencing set off two months of almost daily protests led by university students.
"The death sentence against Hashem Aghajari has been overturned by the Supreme Court," IRNA quoted Ayatollah Mohammad Sajjadi, one of four Supreme Court judges who reviewed the sentence, as saying.
Sajjadi said three of the four Supreme Court judges voted to overturn the death sentence.
Aghajari's lawyer Saleh Nikbakht told Reuters he had heard "from an informed source" that the death sentence had been revoked.
He said the case would be sent back to a court in Hamadan -- the western city where Aghajari was convicted -- for a new sentence to be issued.
"I hope that the final ruling acquits him. Any other ruling other than an acquittal is unacceptable and I would file another appeal," he said.
Aghajari's case, focusing on a speech in which he said Muslims were not "monkeys" to blindly follow the edicts of senior clerics, turned the university lecturer into a cause celebre for the Islamic Republic's embattled reformists.
Thousands of university students boycotted classes and staged rallies, insisting that Aghajari's trial and sentencing highlighted restrictions on free speech and political repression.
As the student protests gathered momentum Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the last word on all matters of state, ordered the judiciary to review the sentence.
Aghajari's lawyer also appealed the verdict despite his client's insistence that he was ready to die for his opinions.
Top