JURIST - Paper Chase: Jordan court convicts editors for printing Muhammad cartoons

[JURIST] A Jordanian court on Tuesday convicted the editors of two national newspapers and sentenced them to two months' imprisonment for publishing cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad [JURIST news archive] that incited protests and violence across the Muslim world earlier this year after first appearing last September in Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten. The editors -- Jihad al-Momani of Shihan [media website] and Hashim al-Khalidi of al-Mihwar -- were arrested [BBC report] in February and charged with violating parts of the penal code that prohibit printing material that could insult religious sentiment or that contradicts Arab or Muslim values.

Momani and Khalidi are free on bail until their appeal of the ruling can be heard, according to their lawyer. Both editors pleaded not guilty to the charges and claimed that they reprinted the cartoons only to demonstrate their harmlessness [HRW press release]. AP has more. The Jordan Times has local coverage.

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