Cartoonist Arif jailed

A Jessore court on Thursday sentenced Arifur Rahman, a cartoonist of The Daily Prothom Alo, to two months' rigorous imprisonment for drawing a cartoon about Hazrat Mohammad (SM) on the Alpin, a supplementary magazine (now defunct) of the Bangla daily.
The trial court of Judicial Magistrate Kaisarul Islam also fined the accused Tk 500, in default, to suffer seven days more in jail.
The court ordered the law enforcers to arrest the convict who is now absconding.
ATM Showayeb, a former pesh imam of Jessore Collectorate Mosque, filed a case on October 23 in 2007 accusing Motiur Rahman, editor of the Prothom Alo, its publisher Mahfuz Anam and cartoonist Arifur Rahman in connection with the cartoon published on September 17, 2007.
The court had acquitted the editor and the publisher from the case.