[JURIST] A Yemeni court has convicted Kamal al-Aalafi, editor-in-chief of the al-Rai al-Aam [official website, in Arabic] newspaper, and sentenced him to one year in jail for violating Article 103 of the Press and Publications Law of 1990 [official text] as punishment for publishing offensive cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad [JURIST news archive]. The weekly paper has additionally been closed for six months. Earlier this year the government of Yemen charged two other editors [JURIST report] of other newspapers with the same crime. Islamic law strictly prohibits portraying any image of the Prophet Muhammad.

The cartoons depicting the Prophet originally appeared in a Danish newspaper in September 2005. They initially went unnoticed but violent protests erupted around the world [JURIST report] in February 2006 when they were republished. AFP has more.