Editor arrested for printing cartoons

A JORDANIAN tabloid editor has been arrested after his newspaper published controversial cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed.

An investigation was also launched into a second weekly newspaper that also printed the cartoons.

The Jordanian newspapers came under fire after being the only Arab-based publications to reprint the caricatures, which have sparked protests and anger in the Muslim world.

“Jihad Momani was arrested early Saturday afternoon,” a judicial source said.

Mr Momani, editor of weekly gossip newspaper Shihane, was fired on Friday after the paper printed three of the cartoons a day earlier.

Authorities also pledged to “open an investigation” into the Al-Mehwar tabloid which printed the caricatures in its January 26 edition, the source said, adding that its editor’s arrest “is only a matter of time.”

Al-Mehwar had reprinted the 12 cartoons to accompany an article on widespread denunciation of the images.

In Shihane, the cartoons had appeared along an editorial that read: “Muslims of the world, be reasonable... what brings more prejudice against Islam, these caricatures or pictures of a hostage-taker slashing the throat of his victim in front of the cameras or a suicide bomber who blows himself up during a wedding ceremony in Amman?”

Mr Momani later expressed his “deep regret and guilt for the serious mistake committed involuntarily by Shihane”.

Jordan’s King Abdullah II said on Friday that insulting the Prophet Mohammed was “a crime that cannot be justified under the pretext of freedom of expression.”