THE TELEGRAPH: A Saudi Arabian lawyer has threatened to use British courts to overturn a Danish free speech ruling by bringing a defamation case over cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed that depicted Islam's founder as a terrorist.
Faisal Yamani, a Jeddah based lawyer, is planning to take a case to London's libel courts on behalf of over 90,000 descendants of Mohammed who have claimed that the drawings have defamed them and the Islamic faith.
Cartoon caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed were published in Danish newspapers in 2006 triggering violent protests across the Muslim world and riots which claimed the lives of over 50 people.
According to Danish press reports, the case can be heard in the [sic] Britain because the images, including a caricature of Mohammed with a bomb shaped turban, have been freely accessible via the internet.
Danish politicians and publishers are furious that European Union rules reward "libel tourism" by enforcing British defamation rulings across Europe.
Ebbe Dal, managing director of Danske Dagblades Forening, the Danish national newspaper association, is concerned that Britain's tough libel laws could be used to restrict free speech in liberal countries such as Denmark.
"The Danish courts have decided that the case is not actionable and that we are allowed to print the drawings in Danish newspapers and websites," he said.
"It would be very odd if a civilised country like Britain could go against that. If this succeeded we would have to pay a lot of money to Saudi Arabians misusing the British courts to make it difficult for freedom of speech." >>> Bruno Waterfield in Brussels | Tuesday, March 16, 2010
