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The editor-in-chief of a Russian newspaper was fined 100,000 roubles (3,000 euros) on Friday for publishing a cartoon of the Prophet Mohammed, Moscow Echo radio station reported.
Anna Smirnova, head of the Nach Region Plus newspaper in Vologda, northeastern Russia, was charged with inciting religious hatred after her paper reproduced a controversial cartoon first published in Denmark in September 2005.
She was given a two-year suspended sentence and placed under house arrest until the fine is paid.
The charges were brought after the newspaper, which has since closed, reproduced the cartoon in an article about the Danish press.
Earlier this year numerous newspapers republished the caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed, sparking a wave of protests by Muslims, some of them violent.
Under Islam conventions, portraying images of the Prophet is considered blasphemous.
vl/cc/gil
Europe-Islam-media-Russia-justice
AFP 141852 GMT 04 06
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