Jordan writer shot dead outside court
A prominent Jordanian writer was yesterday shot dead on the steps of a court where he was facing charges for sharing an anti-Islam cartoon online, in an attack condemned as "heinous".
Nahed Hattar was struck by three bullets before the alleged assassin was arrested at the scene of the shooting in Amman's central Abdali district, said the official Petra news agency.
The assailant -- bearded and dressed in a grey dishdasha worn by conservative Muslim men -- shot Hattar, a 56-year-old Christian, as he made his way up the stairs of the court, a security source said.
Struck in the head, he was pronounced dead on arrival at hospital, said the source. The gunman, a 49-year-old Amman resident, gave himself up to police at the court, the source added.
An AFP journalist saw blood lying on the steps of the courthouse, where police had cordoned off the area of the shooting. Hattar was arrested on August 13 and charged with inciting sectarian strife and insulting Islam before being released on bail in early September.
The cartoon Hattar posted on his Facebook page featured an illustration of God under the title "God of Daesh", using an Arabic acronym for the Islamic State group.
Hattar removed the cartoon from his Facebook page after it triggered outrage on social media. The Jordanian government denounced his killing as a "heinous crime".
At the time, he explained on Facebook that the cartoon made fun of "terrorists and how they imagine God and heaven, and does not insult God in any way".
The attorney general had imposed a blackout media coverage of the case against Hattar, also known as a leftist and supporter of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
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