Updated on
Summary Russian court is likely to ban the US-made anti-Islamic film that sparked protests in Muslim world.
Moscows Tverskoi District judge sided with prosecution arguments presented in court that the low-budget Innocence of Muslims production promoted the rise of religious intolerance in Russia.The court will now pass on the ruling to the justice ministry for addition to Russias disputed national list of extremist material whose distribution is prosecuted and in most cases leads to time in jail.State representatives argued that the film and its shorter 14-minute trailer to the Innocence of Muslims that was posted on the Internet in July promoted the rise of religious intolerance in Russia and would foment religious hatred and strife.The decision coincided with strong words of support for a ban by the visiting culture minister of Iran, which still has relatively tight relations with Russia despite the standoff over its nuclear drive.This film has no value while insulting the Prophet Mohammed in the name of free speech, Interfax quoted Iranian minister Mohammad Hosseini as saying.That means a few people want to be free to insult half-a-billion Muslims.But Russian human rights officials and activist urged the authorities to back free expression and not use the controversy to further clamp down on rights under President Vladimir Putin.Ombudsman Vladimir Lukin testified at the hearing that he was against the films prohibition while a group of artists and media and culture personalities urged Putin not to be swayed by the global militant attacks on US targets.The darkest forces of global terrorism are trying to scare our civilisation and force us to accept their will, reads the open letter to Putin.
