Azerbaijan jails journalists for Mohammad cartoons

BAKU, Nov 16 (Reuters) An Azeri court has sentenced a newspaper editor and a journalist to two months in prison for reprinting Danish cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad seen by many Muslims as blasphemous, an official said today.

On November. 1 Senet newspaper published the cartoons that Muslim clerics had denounced when they first appeared in a Danish daily in February, sparking protests in which more than 50 people were killed in Asia, Africa and the Middle East.

''These journalists have been charged under article 283.2.2 for using their profession to stir up racial hatred,'' said a court spokesman in Baku, capital of the ex-Soviet, largely Muslim state.

Rafika Tagi, the journalist who wrote the Senet article illustrated by the Mohammed cartoons, said prior to his arrest that he had committed no offence.

''We don't live in a religious state and it's impossible to suppress freedom of speech,'' he said.

Interfax news agency reported that demonstrators had demanded a death sentence for Tagi and Samira Sadagatogli, the newspaper's editor.

REUTERS PDS PM0038