TEHRAN -- Hassan Khomeini, founder of the Islamic Revolution late Imam Khomeini's grandson, has expressed regret over a court's sentencing of outspoken university Professor Hashem Aghajari to death, press said Saturday.

"During a meeting with Aghajari's family Friday night, Hojjatoleslam Hassan Khomeini expressed regret over the death verdict and cited it as disproportionate for a war disabled with a revolutionary record," the Persian daily Iran said.

"He also hoped that the Judiciary will soon tackle the problems caused by making an appropriate decision," the paper added.

Meanwhile, peaceful protests against death sentence for Aghajari resumed Saturday as about 1,000 students of the Technical Amir Kabir University demanded the academic's release from jail.

"We will continue our protests until Aghajari is released," one organizer of the protest told students who had gathered at the university's campus.

He said the students had asked officials of the university to postpone mid-term examinations, which was accepted.

The protests, halted since Wednesday after five days of peaceful rallies, resumed as near 1,000 people marched outside Tehran University campus after Friday prayers to support the death verdict.

Aghajari, 45, and a history lecturer, was sentenced on November 6 to death by a court of first order in the western city of Hamedan for allegedly blaspheming Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him).

A former presidential elections candidate also on Friday seriously criticized the last week death sentence issued by Hamedan general court against Dr.

Hashem Aghajari, calling it "politically motivated. Meanwhile, the Member of the faculty of Human Sciences of Martyr Beheshti University, Dr. Ahmad Tavakkoli in an open letter addressed to Judiciary Chief Ayatollah Seyed Mahmoud Shahroudi seriously criticized the verdict issued on the ground of "insulting the Prophet."

Tavakkoli has in his five page letter analyzed the various aspects of the verdict issued against Dr. Aghajari, as well as its aftermaths and illogical taking side of the Judiciary's Public Relations Office in defending the verdict that has not yet been finalized, contrary to the formal Judiciary procedure. He has counted out the hazards imposed by the issuance of the verdict from four different aspects, including "threat against national security", "ruining the reputation of the Judiciary", "inciting the opponents of religion to take snipes at Islamic and national sanctities," and finally "strengthening the deviated beliefs."