Second Yemeni editer convicted

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A Yemeni editor has been fined for reprinting controversial cartoons about the Prophet Muhammad from a Danish newspaper earlier this year.

Muhammad Assadi of the Yemen Observer daily was found guilty of denigrating Islam and fined 0.5m riyals (£1,280).

The cartoons caused Muslim anger around the world. Mr Assadi said he wanted to show Yemenis how insulting they were.

Last month a Yemeni editor was jailed for a year for reprinting the images. Another still faces similar charges.

Kamal al-Aalafi, who was given the jail term, has been released on bail and plans appeal against the sentence.

His weekly paper, al-Rai al-Aam, was ordered to be closed for six months. President Ali Abdullah Saleh has pledged to overturn any jail sentences handed to journalists.

Mr Assadi's lawyer called the judge's verdict a mistake: "The guilty verdict in this case is what harms the image of Islam."

The Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten first published the cartoons in 2005 in what it said was a protest against attempts at censorship by local Muslims.

Islamic tradition explicitly prohibits images of Muhammad and other major religious figures.

Several of the cartoons associated Muslims, including the prophet himself, with violence, backwardness and fanaticism.