IRANIAN STUDENTS ARE CLAIMING VICTORY:

Students who have staged Iran’s biggest pro-reform protests for three years claimed a victory for freedom of speech Sunday as Iran’s supreme leader ordered a review of the death sentence against a dissident academic.

The week-long student rallies and strikes in support of history lecturer Hashem Aghajari, condemned to hang for blasphemy, had raised political tension at a crucial stage in the power battle between Iran’s reformists and hard-liners. . . .

Students greeted the news as a victory and said they would consider ending mass protests at campuses across the country.

Did Amnesty or Human Rights Watch come loudly to Aghajari’s defense? If so, I missed it.

This earlier post by Allan Prather notes that Khomeini’s grandson joined the protests.

UPDATE: William Sjostrom reports that he can’t find anything from Amnesty. But Brian Jones emails this link to a Human Rights Watch denunciation of the Iranian execution order. Advantage: HRW!