Yemeni editor gets a year for Muhammed cartoons

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
A Yemeni newspaper editor has begun serving a year in prison for reprinting the Danish cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad. Kamal al-Aalafi, the editor, said the verdict "takes Yemen back to totalitarian rule, contradicts freedom of expression, and represents a real violation of democracy and freedom of the press," he told reporters after sentencing Friday. The court that handed down the sentence also ordered the closure for six months of al-Aalafi's Al-Ra'i al-Am independent weekly and forbade the editor from writing for the same period.