Yemeni Editor Sentenced To Year In Jail For Publishing Muhammed Cartoons

A court in Sanaa, Yemen has sentenced Editor-in-Chief Kamal al Aalafi to a year in jail and has shut down his newspaper Al-Rai Al-Aam for six months, because of the publication of cartoons depicting Muhammed that originally ran in the Danish paper Jyllands-Posten in 2005. The editor will appeal, and the UPI and BBC reports say he has been released on bail to do so. According to the BBC article, two other Yemeni editors and their publications -- the Yemen Observer and Al Hurya face similar charges. The former is an English-language paper and the latter is an Arabic-language publication. All three were brought to court back in February and charged with publishing blasphemous drawings during the height of political turmoil and protests regarding the cartoons' publication in Denmark.

As usual, there is some disagreement as to particulars: this article says that the editor was taken directly to jail.

On a slightly more positive note, or at least a more measured one, Gihan Shahine of Al-Ahram Weekly looks at the lingering effect the Cartoons Controversy has had in Denmark.
 
posted 8:20 pm PST | Permalink
 

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