19 May 2008

AMSTERDAM - The Dutch public prosecution said Friday that a Dutch cartoonist going by the name Gregorius Nekschot has produced at least eight cartoons that violate Dutch anti-discrimination legislation and that incite people to commit violence.

The eight cartoons have meanwhile been removed from the internet, the statement said.

The public prosecutor however refrained from indicating whether or not Nekschot - Dutch for "shot in the neck" - would be charged and prosecuted.

Police arrested the cartoonist on Wednesday and released him a day later. During his time in custody, the police searched his home and confiscated his work.

The police studied dozens of cartoons in an attempt to investigate whether the cartoonist had violated Dutch anti-discrimination legislation.

The police also tracked down the man transferring money to Nekschot on a monthly basis to finance the cartoonists' website www.gregoriusnekschot.nl.

The arrest of the cartoonist and search for his sponsor follows an investigation by the public prosecutor after imam Abdul Jabbar van de Ven, a well-known Dutch convert to Islam, filed a complaint about Nekschot's cartoons in 2005.

Nekschot publishes primarily on the internet. On his website he claimed he took refuge in the internet as his main platform because Dutch print media refused to publish his work.

His website divides his work over more than ten categories, including "science" and "modern life", but even in those categories most of his cartoons feature Muslims and black people.

[dpa / Expatica]