From Reuters:

By Gelu Sulugiuc and Rasmus Nord Jorgensen

COPENHAGEN, July 13 (Reuters) – A Muslim group lost a libel case on Friday against the leader of a Danish anti-immigrant party who had accused its members of treason for publicising cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad.

A court ruled that Pia Kjaersgaard, leader of the Danish People’s Party (DPP), did not libel the Islamic Faith Community when she accused some of its members of treason for travelling to the Middle East to publicise a Danish newspaper’s publication of the drawings, which caused a worldwide uproar in 2006.

The court said the term “treason” was not libellous because it was used extensively in public debate. It ordered the plaintiffs, a loose network of Danish Muslim organisations which says it represents 50,000 members, to pay Kjaersgaard 40,000 Danish crowns ($7,400) in costs.

In September 2005, the newspaper Jyllands-Posten published 12 cartoons of the Prophet which were later reprinted elsewhere and provoked outrage among Muslims.

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