GUNMAN FATALLY SHOOTS WRITER OVER SHARING OF A CARTOON

AMMAN: A gunman on Sunday killed prominent Jordanian writer Nahed Hattar outside a court where he was facing charges for sharing a cartoon deemed offensive to Islam, state news agency Petra reported.

Hattar was struck by three bullets before the assailant was arrested, said Petra.

Witnesses told AFP that a man had opened fire in front of the court in Amman’s Abdali district.

The Jordanian government denounced his killing as a “heinous crime”.

“The law will be firmly applied to the person who committed the crime and the government will strike with an iron fist anyone who dares to take advantage of this to spread hate speech,” said spokesman Mohamad Momani.

The opposition Muslim Brotherhood and Dar al-Iftaa, the highest religious authority, also condemned the attack.

The 56-year-old Christian was arrested on August 13 after posting a cartoon mocking jihadists on his Facebook account.

He was charged with inciting sectarian strife and insulting Islam before being released on bail in early September.

Jordan’s attorney general had imposed a blackout on media coverage of the case.

Hattar removed the cartoon from his Facebook page after it triggered outrage on social media.

The cartoon features an illustration of God under the title “God of Daesh”, using an Arabic acronym for the Islamic State group.

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”.

Jordan is a leading member of the United States-led coalition fighting the Islamic State in neighbouring Iraq and Syria.