LONDON, July 19 (UPI) -- A British court sentenced three Muslim men to six years in prison after they were convicted of soliciting murder at a protest against a newspaper cartoon.
Mizanur Rahman, Umran Javed and Abdul Muhid were convicted in separate trials of soliciting murder and stirring up race hatred during a London protest against newspaper comic strips that were considered offensive to Muslims, The Telegraph reported Thursday.
"Your words were meant to ferment hatred and encourage killing," Judge Brian Barker told the men at the sentencing.
"Your words and behavior were designed to encourage any young and impressionable person to perform a terrorist act in the name of religion with the indiscriminate carnage with which we are all too familiar," the judge said.
A fourth suspect, Abdul Saleem, was found innocent of soliciting murder but was convicted of inciting race hatred, The Telegraph said. He received a four-year jail sentence.
