Wednesday, May 17, 2006  
Kowsar Tried in Absentia

:: Posted by Bryan @ 5/17/2006 02:59:00 PM
The Comics Reporter links to a report by the AAEC about the trial of exiled Iranian cartoonist Nik Kowsar. Kowsar fled Iran after being arrested for publishing a cartoon critical of Iranian clerics and their stance towards press freedom in 2000. While the crocodile-shaped cleric in his cartoon was not intended as a specific satire, it was widely assumed he was targeting the famous Ayatullah Mesbah-e Yazdi. Facing death threats and a trial, Kowsar accepted an invitation from the Association of Canadian Editorial Cartoonists to attend their convention in 2001. Kowsar now lives in Canada.

In a Tehran court, Judge Husseinian sentenced Kowsar to four months imprisonment on the charge of "insulting Mohammad Taghi Mesbah Yazdi head of Imam Khomeini Training Institute, insulting Ali Larijani, Head of IRIB (Iranian Official Radio & TV), and other dignities and high ranking clergy and officials of the establishment," according to a report by the Association of Iranian Journalists.

Kowsar maintains a blog and contributes to a new blog on the Danish cartoons created by Bruce MacKinnon of the Association of Canadian Editorial Cartoonists.

You can read Kowsar's own story here.

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