Paris, France - A state attorney Thursday called for the dismissal of a court 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 trial, which opened Wednesday, has drawn nationwide attention in a country with Europe's largest Muslim community and a strong commitment to freedom of expression and secularism.
Journalists and politicians have testified and Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy sent a letter of support for the weekly, Charlie-Hebdo.
The publication and its director, Philippe Val, are charged with ''publicly abusing a group of people because of their religion.'' Val risks a six-month prison sentence and a fine of up to 28,500.
The state prosecutor -- whose role in court is to defend French law -- 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.
Instead, she argued, the caricatures denounced ''terrorists who pretend to be acting in (Islam's) name or in the name of the prophet.''
A verdict was expected March 15.
In September, a Danish court rejected a lawsuit against the newspaper that first printed the cartoons -- a verdict some Arab politicians and intellectuals warned would widen a cultural gap.
The case against Charlie-Hebdo was brought by the conservative Mosque of Paris and the fundamentalist Union of Islamic Organizations of France. Attorneys for the Mosque of Paris denounced the mixing of religious and terrorist themes.
The caricatures ''constitute an outrageous expression of belief in a terrorist prophet,'' lawyer Christophe Bigot argued.
On Wednesday, the defense read a letter of support for Charlie-Hebdo from Sarkozy, a presidential candidate. Sarkozy, who wrote the letter on campaign paper and not ministry stationary, said he preferred ''an excess of caricatures to an absence of caricatures.''
Another presidential candidate, centrist leader Francois Bayrou, testified for the weekly, calling freedom of expression ''the central pillar of the society in which we live.''
''It protects us all, believers, nonbelievers, agnostics,'' he said.
The French Council for the Muslim Faith complained that the case was taken on a political character.