'Cartoon' demonstrators jailed on race-hate charges

Published on Thursday 19 July 2007 01:37

THREE men were each sentenced to six years in jail yesterday for soliciting murder during a demonstration against an anti-Islamic cartoon.

Mizanur Rahman, 24, Umran Javed, 27, and Abdul Muhid, 25, were convicted during separate Old Bailey trials.

Judge Brian Barker, the Common Serjeant of London, said that their words had been designed to encourage murder and terrorism.

Abdul Saleem, 32, was cleared of soliciting murder at his trial, but convicted of inciting race hate. He was jailed for four years.

They were arrested after 300 protesters marched to the Danish embassy in central London in February last year.

The police made video recordings of speeches and slogans during the demonstration against a controversial cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad, which was first published in Denmark.

Rahman called for soldiers to be brought back from Iraq in body-bags. Muhid led a crowd in chanting "Bomb, bomb the UK".