Jordan court starts trial of Danish journalists

By ABDUL JALIL MUSTAFA | ARAB NEWS
Apr 25, 2011

AMMAN: A Jordanian court on Monday started trial of cartoonist Kurt Westergaard and 19 other Danish journalists and newspapers charged with "blasphemy" for publishing Prophet Muhammad's (peace be upon him) cartoons six years ago.

None of the defendants appeared in the court and the judge, Nathir Shehadah, decided to conduct the trial in absentia after he considered the publication of the warrants and the indictment sheets in local press as legal notification, judicial sources said.

The court adjourned the session until May 8, when the tribunal is scheduled to hear 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 cartoons of the Prophet (pbuh) in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten on Sept. 30, 2005, inciting outrage in the Muslim world as well as a boycott of Danish products.

The charges, which have already been approved by the Jordanian public prosecutor, include "blasphemy against the Prophet and humiliation of Islam and Muslims," which are punishable under the Jordanian penal code, the campaign's lawyer Tareq Hawamdeh said.

Source: Arab News.
Link: http://arabnews.com/middleeast/article372637.ece.