Ammonnews.net

A Jordanian court on Sunday postponed for one week a session in the trial of international internet giant Google brought against it by a group of Jordanian lawyers over a controversial anti-Islam film that was posted on Youtube, which is owned by Google.

The Amman Court of First Instance, headed by Judge Nassar Halalmeh, decided to postpone the session for one week to subpoena Google, and the producer and director of the film, who are also being tried in the case brought against them by the Jordanian lawyers.

A group of Jordanian lawyers filed a lawsuit in Jordanian courts earlier this year against the producer and director of a controversial anti-Islam movie and against Google, the owner of Youtube.



The lawsuit was filed by the Freedoms Committee at the Jordan Bar Association (JBA), represented by Lawyer Nour al-Imam, Mustafa Yaghi, Adel Saqf al-Hayt, and Faisal Khoza'i.

An indictment decision was referred to the specialized courts on April 28, 2013, with the lawyers citing personal right against the movie "Innocence of Muslims," which sparked major controversy and violent protests over what many Muslims considered as a major offense to the person of Prophet Muhammad. 



The case was also filed against the producer of the 14-minute movie Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, and movie director Alan Roberts.

The indictment decision was also filed against Google, the owner of YouTube, for allowing the movie clip to be published on their site. 



The movie clip was initially uploaded to YouTube in July 2012, followed by versions dubbed in the Arabic language uploaded later in September. 



Anti-Islamic content had been added in post production by dubbing, reportedly without the actors' knowledge.

The indictment decision includes charges of blasphemy, offending religious sentiment, and slander against Prophet Muhammad and inciting religious strife in accordance with Jordanian Penal Law and international conventions, including The International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD), and the Information Systems Criminal Law, among others.

Google reportedly attempted to hire a Jordanian defense team to defend its case in the court, but no Jordanian lawyer agreed to take on the case considering that the film was offensive to religious sentiment, Jordanian Lawyer Adel Saqf al-Hayt told Ammon News on Sunday.

Jordanian lawyer Nur al-Imam called on Jordanian lawyers not to take on the case on behalf of Google, considering that the case brought against the company, the producer, and the director of the film is a legal precedence in Jordan.

Youtube had since removed several copies of the film from its site, particularly following mass protests in different Muslim-majority countries against the film.

Meanwhile, the Jordan Print and Publications Department denied on Saturday that Google had threatened to withdraw its projects in Jordan and liquidate its operations in the Kingdom.