BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

18/01/2008

Belarus editor sent to prison for publishing Prophet Mohammed cartoons

Posted by Mike Carney

Remember those 12 cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed that caused so much trouble when they appeared in a Danish newspaper back in 2005?

Well, they're still making waves. Alexander Sdvizhkov, the editor of a now-defunct paper in Belarus, was just sentenced to three years in prison. He had been convicted of inciting hatred by republishing the images in Zgoda. (Reuters says the cartoons were published in March 2006, but Interfax says the KGB opened an investigation in February 2006. Given the discrepancy, we're not sure about the timing.)

"May God and the holy cross be with us," Sdvizhkov said after sentencing, according to Reuters.

The cartoons, one of which showed the revered religious figure with a bomb on his head, spawned demonstrations that led to dozens of deaths.

Source:

http://blogs.usatoday.com/ondeadline/2008/01/belarus-editor.html