BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

27/01/2008

Belarusian editor jailed for insulting Islam

LONDON, January 27 (IranMania) - Belarus has put an editor of a newspaper in prison as he copied cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad that first appeared in Denmark in 2005, PressTV reported.

Alexander Sdvizhkov was sentenced to three years in jail in a closed session of the court for incitement of religious and national hatred.

Muslims made mass protests as they saw the cartoons as blasphemous. More than 50 people died in demonstrations across the world the following year.

Belarusian authorities shut down the Zgoda (Consensus) paper in March 2006, around the time when other European journals began reprinting the cartoons.

There are around two or 3% Muslims in Belarus. The Muslim community in the country had called for leniency in the case.

Source:

http://www.iranmania.com/News/ArticleView/Default.asp?NewsCode=57325&NewsKind=Current%20Affairs