Yemen editor 'faces death calls'

BBC:

Yemeni lawyers have called for a newspaper editor to be sentenced to death for showing cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad, his paper says.

Asadi denies the charge of offending Islam

Muhammad al-Asadi was arrested after his publication, the Yemen Observer, showed the Danish cartoons in February.

He denies the charges of offending Islam, under which he is being tried. The English-language newspaper has had its licence to publish suspended, although its staff have continued to produce material online.

Lawyers leading a civil case against publishers of the cartoons - in addition to the public case - cited precedents from Muslim history when the prophet was insulted by a woman and then praised her killer.

Prosecutors have reportedly requested that the Yemen Observer be closed permanently and have its property and assets confiscated.

The trial was adjourned until 22 March.

Help Save A Man's Life: Yemen editor faces capital punishment for printing cartoons.

Up to 21 prosecution lawyers called for the death penalty against Mohammed Al-Asadi, the Editor-in-Chief of the Yemen Observer, and the permanent closure of the newspaper, during Al-Asadi’s trial on Wednesday. As incredible as it sounds, nonetheless, the lawyers, commissioned by Sheik Abdul-Majid Zindani, the Chairman of Islah Shura Council and led by Mohammed Al-Shawish, also called for the confiscation of all the newspaper’s property and assets, and for financial compensation to be paid to be the Muslim’s ‘Finance House’, which last existed during the time of the Caliphs, 1200 years ago.

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