Yemen jails journalist over Prophet cartoons

Sanaa, Nov 25: A Yemeni court sentenced a journalist to a year in jail today for reprinting Danish satirical caricatures of Islam's Prophet Mohammad which provoked outrage among Muslims around the world earlier this year.

The court convicted Kamal al-Aalafi, editor-in-chief of the al-Rai al-Aam, of offending Prophet Mohammad and also ordered the independent weekly to close for six months, his lawyer Khaled al-Ansi said.

The cartoons, one of which depicted the Prophet Mohammad with a bomb in his turban, first appeared in a Danish daily in September 2005, sparking protests early in 2006 in which more than 50 people were killed in Asia, Africa and the West Asia.

The editors of two other Yemeni publications, the Yemen Observer and al-Hurriya, are facing similar charges though President Ali Abdallah Saleh has promised to scrap jail terms for journalists convicted of violations in publishing.

Aalafi says that he reprinted the cartoons, seen by many Muslims as blasphemous, to raise awareness among Yemenis about what had appeared in the Danish press, not to insult Muslims.

Reuters