SANAA, 16 February 2006 — A Yemeni court began yesterday the trial of a Yemeni editor whose newspaper reprinted controversial cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him).
Mohammed Al-Asaadi, editor in chief of the English-language Yemen Observer weekly, was charged with “publishing blasphemous drawings offending the Prophet Muhammad and the Islamic religion.”
Assadi rejected the charge and told the court his newspaper reprinted the cartoons as part of reporting of the protests against the drawings.
The drawings, first published by the Danish Jyllands-Posten newspaper last September, included one showing the Prophet wearing a turban shaped like a bomb.
The court turned down a release on bail request submitted by lawyers for Al-Asaadi, who has been detained since Feb. 11.
Last week, Yemen closed down three weekly newspapers for reprinting the controversial cartoons that triggered protests throughout the Muslim world.
Prosecutors said editors of the other two papers, Al-Rai Al-Aam and Al-Hurriya, would be brought before court next week.
The Yemeni Press and Publications Law prohibits the dissemination of any material seen as offensive to religions.
