Hattar was arrested in August for sharing a cartoon on Facebook showing a bearded man in heaven smoking, lying in bed with women and calling on God to bring him wine and cashew. He captioned the cartoon which he deleted shortly after posting it:
“It mocks terrorists and their concept of God and heaven. It does not infringe God’s divinity in anyway”
“I am mocking the terrorists and their conception of hell and heaven,” Mr Hattar wrote shortly before his death. “I’m not insulting the supreme Allah, at all, on the contrary, I’m against the type of God that the terrorists worship
The gunman was arrested at the scene has been identified as Riyad Ismail Abdullah, a 49-year-old imam who recently returned from making the Hajj pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia.
“We hold the Ministry of Interior responsible,” said Jamal Attar, a cousin.
“This is the first assassination in Jordan that targets a person over nothing but his opinion, for freedom of speech. The prime minister was the first one who incited against Nahed when he ordered his arrest and put him on trial for sharing the cartoon.” the victim’s cousin Saad Hattar said. “
Jordan’s government condemned his murder, calling it an “ugly crime” and promised “investigating the incident and holding the criminal accountable for his offense”