Arifur Rahman Sentenced To Jail For Cartoon; Cartoonist Unaware Of Trial

This is the story that's just awful enough I looked at it three times hoping it was an old wire piece that had somehow popped back up -- believe me, it happens -- but I'm 98 percent convinced it's new and true.

Arifur Rahman is a Bangladeshi cartoonist who in 2007 made a cartoon featuring a cat named Muhammad. This enraged groups of religious fundamentalists, as well as angered those that could be whipped into a fury by those same folks and general media coverage. This led to him being placed into detention first for his own protection and then as punishment, from which he emerged only this year (in March) after a High Court decision on his behalf. In the meantime, his then-employer apologized for the cartoon, fired the cartoonist and vowed to never hire Rahman again.

Now this article suggests that Rahman was tried in absentia for that cartoon in Jessore, found guilty, and has been sentenced to either eight weeks or nine weeks imprisonment depending on his ability to pay a fine. For his part, Rahman claims he had no idea any of it was going on and that as far as he was concerned, all charges against him had been dismissed.
 
posted 7:40 am PST | Permalink
 

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