Don't mock the Ayatollah on the web

Mojtaba Saminejad still faces charges of insulting the prophet and spreading corruption on his website which could cost him more time inside.

The Iranian blogger arrested during a crackdown against online dissent, was sent down on a charge of "insulting the supreme leader".

He got off on a charge of acting against national security and insulting the founder of the Islamic republic, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who has been dead for some time, but apparently checks Internet blogs in the afterlife and is still apparent capable of being offended.

Saminejad, 25, who lives in the clerical capital of Qom, ran a bog which looked at a few sensitive religious and political problems. This included whether or not Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has the right to have absolute power.

Saminejad has been jailed since September 2004, along with some 20 other Internet writers and technicians working for pro-reform websites.

Some of those arrested made detailed confessions to the judiciary before publicly retracting them after their release. The judiciary subsequently faced allegations of extracting the confessions by duress.

Late last month Saminejad went on a hunger strike, in protest. More here, and here. µ