BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

18/01/2008

Belarusian court imprisons editor for printing caricature of Prophet Muhammad

MINSK, Belarus (AP) - A Minsk court sentenced a Belarusian newspaper editor Friday to three years in prison for reprinting a caricature of the Prophet Muhammad that sparked worldwide riots when it was initially published in a Danish newspaper.

In Vienna, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe accused Belarus of misusing hate speech laws.

Miklos Haraszti, media freedom representative for the Vienna-based Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, urged officials to release Alexander Sdvizhkov, the former deputy editor of the small-circulation Zhoda newspaper.

Security officers in Belarus launched an investigation of Sdvizhkov in February 2006 when he published the caricatures which had originally appeared in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten.

President Alexander Lukashenko ordered the paper shut the following month, calling the publication of the cartoon "a provocation against the state." Sdvizhkov was arrested and charged with "inciting religious hatred" in November 2007 when he returned to Belarus following several months of living in Russia and Ukraine.

The Minsk City Court imposed its sentence Friday after a closed-door trial. The sentence was read out before journalists and other observers.

After the hearing, Sdvizhkov told reporters he would appeal the sentence. "God and the power of the cross are with us," he said.

A Belarusian Islamic leader called the sentence excessively harsh.

"I wanted them to take responsibility for the publication and give him some sort of reprimand. My demands were limited to this," said Ismail Voronovich, the leader of Belarus' small Muslim community. "I thought that this case was closed and the newspaper was back working.

The ex-Soviet republic is overwhelmingly Orthodox Christian; less than 1 percent of the country's 10 million is Muslim.

The OSCE's Haraszti called the sentence to a high-security prison excessive and accused Belarus of misusing hate speech laws.

"In 21st century Europe, it is shocking to see an editor arrested, tried behind closed doors and punished beyond any acceptable limits only for reprinting cartoons produced elsewhere and that have been published everywhere," Haraszti said.

"Persecution of journalists for trying to inform the public on important issues is a misuse of hate speech laws. In fact, the Belarus government has used the international controversy around the cartoons as a pretext to eliminate a critical voice from public life," he added.

Fiery protests swept across Muslim countries in January and February 2006 in reaction to the Danish newspaper's decision to publish 12 caricatures of Muhammad in what it said was a challenge to self-censorship among artists dealing with Islamic issues.

Islamic law generally opposes any depiction of the prophet, even favorable, for fear it could lead to idolatry.

In the 14 years he has been in power, Lukashenko has run the country with an iron fist, quashing opposition groups, closing down independent media and restoring Soviet-style, central controls to the economy.

Associated Press Writer William J. Kole in Vienna contributed to this report.

Source:

http://www.pr-inside.com/belarusian-court-imprisons-editor-for-r394028.htm