21 February 2006

MUENSTER, GERMANY - Germany is to put on trial this week a man who printed the word "Koran" on toilet paper and sent this to a mosque, provoking outrage in Islamic countries.

The 61-year-old businessman had been indicted for insulting a religion.

Prosecutors are to tell the court in the city of Muenster on Thursday that samples of the "home-made" product were sent to an Islamic community in the German city of Duisburg and to German television stations.

The man, from the small town of Senden, south of Muenster, told journalists he was raising funds for a "monument to the victims of Islamic violence."

Prosecutors said the case was brought to their attention after the government of Iran sent a protest to the German foreign ministry in Berlin.

Under a part of the German legal code last revised in 1969, a person can be sentenced to a fine or up to three years in jail for "insulting confessions, religious communities or groups promoting a special world view."

Prosecutors did not intervene earlier this month when German newspapers printed cartoons depicting the prophet Mohammed. The law, which only applies to self-evident insults, has mainly been applied in the past to those using slurs against Christianity.

DPA

Subject: German news