Middle East News
Mohammed cartoonist goes on trial on blasphemy charges in Jordan
Apr 25, 2011, 15:01 GMT
Amman - Cartoonist Kurt Westergaard and 19 other Danish journalists and editors went on trial in Jordan on Monday on charges of blasphemy over the publication of controversial cartoons depicting Islam's Prophet Mohammed six years ago.
None of the defendants appeared in the Amman court. The judge, Nathir Shehadah, decided to conduct the trial in absentia after he considered that the publication of arrest warrants and indictments in the local press served as legal notifications, judicial sources said.
The trial was adjourned to May 8, when the tribunal will be scheduled to hear defence witnesses.
The lawsuit was filed by the 'God's Prophet Unites us Campaign,' a coalition of Jordanian academics, lawmakers, unionists, journalists, lawyers and politicians.
Westergaard published 12 satirical pictures of the prophet in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten on September 30, 2005. Their publication caused outrage in the Arab and Islamic world and led to a boycott of Danish products.
One of the pictures showed Prophet Mohammed carrying a lit bomb instead of a turban on his head.
The cartoons were later published by several European newspapers.
The list of charges, which has already been approved by the Jordanian public prosecutor, includes 'blasphemy against Prophet Mohammed and humiliation of Islam and Muslims.' Such offences are punishable under the Jordanian penal code, the campaign's lawyer, Tareq Hawamdeh, said.
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