Editor sentenced to one year in prison in Mohammed cartoons case

Reporters Without Borders has condemned a one-year prison sentence against the editor of the weekly al Rai al-Aam, and a six-month suspension of the paper for publishing the controversial Danish cartoons of the prophet Mohammed. The editor, Kamal Alufi, also had a six-month ban on writing slapped on him by the court in Sanaa, where he was found guilty of having “damaged the Islamic faith” and “denigrating a monotheist religion or humanitarian belief”. He was taken into custody after sentencing on 25 November, before being freed two hours later on the orders of the General Prosecutor General Abdallah Al Olfi because of an “illegal process”. He will remain at liberty until the appeal hearing. “It is worrying that the Yemeni authorities continue to hound journalists in this case, which has stopped making headlines elsewhere,” the worldwide press freedom organisation said. “The four journalists facing charges simply raised in their respective papers the worldwide reactions which the cartoons had provoked. It seems that the authorities are however using this case to settle scores with the press,” it added. “Since he has several times said he opposed the criminalisation of press offences, we urge President Ali Abdallah Saleh to take responsibility for protecting the press by condemning the unfairness of the trials of editors of the three Yemeni newspapers who reprinted the controversial cartoons.” In February 2006, the editor of independent weekly al-Hurray, Adel Halima Aram Sabre, journalist Yahiya al Abed and editor of the Yemen Observer Mohammed al Asaadi, facing the same charges but being tried separately, spent two weeks in custody. Their trials are continuing.