Iranian Cleric Offers His Home To Kill Azeri Writer

November 21, 2006 -- An Iranian cleric has offered his house as a reward to anyone who kills an Azeri writer who the cleric says insulted the Prophet Muhammad.

Ayatollah Morteza Bani Fazl lives in the city of Tabriz, in a northwestern region near the Azerbaijani border where a sizable Azeri minority resides.

The Azeri journalist, Rafiq Tagi, wrote an article in Azerbaijan's "Sanat" publication that was illustrated by caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad that were originally published in Denmark.

An Azeri court in mid-November sentenced Tagi and the paper's editor, Samir Sadaqatoglu, to two months' detention.

(Fars, Reuters)