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Denmark's top prosecutor said Wednesday he would not press charges against the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten which first published the Prophet Mohammed cartoons that sparked riots in the Muslim world.
Prosecutor general Henning Fode stressed that there were limits to Denmark's freedom of expression laws but found that the newspaper did not violate those laws.
"I have decided today not to institute criminal proceedings in the case of Jyllands-Posten's article 'The Face of Mohammed', which was published on September 30, 2005 and where complaints were filed against Jyllands-Posten for violation of sections 140 and 266b of the Danish criminal code," Fode wrote in a statement.
The complaints were filed by a number of organisations and individuals.
Muslims consider images of their religion's founder to be blasphemous, and publication of the cartoons ignited violent demonstrations in the Muslim world.
But Fode said that "the religious writings of Islam cannot be said to contain a general and absolute prohibition against drawing the prophet Mohammed."
However, he said, "it should be noted that both provisions of the Danish criminal code contain a restriction of the freedom of expression."
The first section protects "religious feelings against mockery and scorn", while the second "protects groups of persons against scorn and degradation on account of their religion among other things", he said.
"To the extent publicly made expressions fall within the scope of these rules there is, therefore, no free and unrestricted right to express opinions about religious subjects," he wrote.
Jyllands-Posten has argued that freedom of expression is incompatible with demands for special consideration for religious feelings.
The newspaper has apologised to Muslims offended by the cartoons, but has repeatedly refused to apologise for their publication, insisting that freedom of expression is a tenet of Danish democracy.
Jyllands-Posten editor Carsten Juste said he was pleased with the prosecutor's ruling.
"It's a very satisfying decision that the prosecutor has reached," Juste told Danish news agency Ritzau.
However, he disagreed that there were limits to freedom of expression.
"We all agree that we have freedom of expression under the responsibility of the courts, but to say that one from the start has limited freedom of expression, I don't think you can say that," he said.
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Europe-Islam-media-Denmark-justice
AFP 151916 GMT 03 06
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