Danish prosecutor will not charge newspaper

Thursday March 16th 2006, 2:15 pm
Filed under: Newspapers

Denmark’s top prosecutor said Wednesday he will not press charges against the newspaper that first published the Prophet Muhammad drawings that triggered deadly protests by Muslims worldwide. Director of Public Prosecutions Henning Fode upheld the decision of a regional prosecutor, who said the 12 cartoons published in Jyllands-Posten on September 30 did not violate Danish law. Fode’s decision cannot be appealed. But Fode’s ruling also noted there was ‘no free and unrestricted right to express opinions about religious subjects’ in Denmark. He said Jyllands-Posten had thus been wrong in writing that religious groups had to be ready to put up with ’scorn, mockery and ridicule.’ Fode’s office said it had received several appeals by organisations and individuals unhappy with the regional prosecutor’s decision. One of those groups, the Islamic Faith Community, said it was disappointed in Fode’s ruling and would consider raising the issue with The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France. (AP, ABC News,March 16, 2006)

These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.