Danish Cartoonist Charged in Jordan: ‘I Don’t Allow Fanatics to Intimidate Me’

After drawing a cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad with a lit bomb in his turban in 2005, Kurt Westergaard has lived under constant police protection. Now Jordan wants to prosecute the Dane. In a SPIEGEL ONLINE interview he discusses the legal summons and his anger.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Mr. Westergaard, I am assuming you’re not planning a vacation in Jordan this year?

Westergaard: No, I don’t think so!

SPIEGEL ONLINE: The prosecutor general in Amman has issued a subpoena against you. He wants you to face a court in Jordan for the cartoon you drew of the Prophet Muhammad in 2005.

Westergaard: Yes, but so far I haven’t received an official summons to court. I have already contacted the Jordanian Embassy in Berlin and asked them if they could inform me what the punishment would be. If I went to Amman would I be arrested as soon as I put my foot on Jordanian soil? But I never got an answer.

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