France: No charges for Charlie Hebdo

I just heard in the France2 newscast that the prosecutor in the Charlie Hebdo case will not press charges against the paper, which was acussed of inciting racial hatred by reprinting the Mohammed cartoons.

The judges will render a judgement next March, but Charlie Hebdo effectively has won the case.

Update, Friday 10 February: AP reports (emphasis added), Prosecutor wants to dismiss case against French weekly that published prophet cartoons

A state prosecutor asked a French court Thursday to dismiss a case brought by French Muslims against a satirical weekly that printed caricatures of the Prophet Mohamed, saying the cartoons denounce terrorists' use of the Muslim faith but do not damage Islam.

The verdict was postponed until March 15.
...
...the prosecutor, in court to defend French law, specifically the law in question against racial abuse, argued in favor of the magazine, which on Feb. 8, 2006 printed three caricatures -- two of them reprints of those carried by a Danish newspaper in 2005 that stoked anger across the Islamic world. One caricature was an original.

"It is not faith in Islam that was stigmatized by these caricatures. It is not an attack on religious convictions as such," said prosecutor Anne de Fontette.

"What is underscored ... is the denunciation of (the religion's) use by terrorists who pretend to be acting in its name or in the name of the prophet ... political fundamentalism, jihad, the combat of terrorists," the prosecutor said, requesting the case be dismissed.

Forbes also carried the AP report.

Le Monde and France2 report in French.

Technorati tags Danish cartoons, Jyllands-Posten