WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 2003
Scribes convicted for libeling Prophet Muhammad
AP
AMMAN: Jordan's military State Security Court convicted three journalists on Monday of libeling Islam's Prophet Muhammad and sentenced them to prison terms ranging from two to six months.
The court said it also found Muhannad Mubaideen, 29, Roman Haddad, 28, and Nasser Qamash, 33, guilty of harming Jordan's reputation in a January 14 article about Muhammad's sex life with his wife Aisha and of "destabilising the society, propagating perversity and circulating false rumours."
Under the law, the verdict and sentencing are irrevocable.
Presiding judge Col. Fawaz al-Buqour said Mubaideen deserved to be jailed for one year for writing a "defamatory article" in al-Hilal, or the Crescent, newspaper. But the judge said he commuted the sentence to six months to allow him to reconsider his actions. He did not elaborate.
He sentenced Haddad and Qamash - editors blamed for sanctioning the article - to two and three months in jail, respectively.
Al-Buqour also ruled that the paper - an independent weekly with an estimated circulation of 7,000 - should remain closed for another month as punishment. Police shut down al-Hilal on January 16.
When the trial opened January 28, the three journalists entered innocent pleas.
They testified they had not meant to libel Muhammad, but that the article had been extracted from historic and religious references tackling the sex life of the Prophet with his wife.
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