The International Press Institute (IPI) today condemned the killing of prominent Jordanian writer Nahed Hattar, who was gunned down yesterday outside a courthouse in the capital Amman where he was to stand trial for a social media post sharing a satirical cartoon deemed offensive to Islam.

A controversial political commentator and columnist, Hattar, 56, was shot dead near the Palace of Justice in Abdali, in central Amman. According to media reports, the assailant, who was wearing a traditional Arab dishdasha, or long robe, drew his weapon from the bag he was holding and shot Hattar at close range three times.

Hattar was rushed to a nearby hospital, where he died. The suspected gunman, Riad Abdullah, was reportedly arrested at the scene. Security forces said he was a known extremist.

A member of Jordan’s Christian minority and an anti-Islamist activist, Hattar was arrested on Aug. 13 after posting a cartoon titled “The God of Daesh”, alluding to the local acronym used to refer to the Islamic State group, on his Facebook page. The cartoon depicted a bearded man in heaven smoking in bed with two women and asking God to bring him wine and food.

Hattar was charged with the crimes of insulting religion and inciting sectarian strife. He was detained for 15 days and released on bail earlier this month.

The cartoon posting caused an outrage in Jordan. Hattar was attacked on social media and accused of purposefully causing offence to Muslims. Despite threats against his life, he was afforded no protection by authorities after his release on bail.

Hattar insisted that he had not meant to insult Islam by posting the cartoon, but rather to expose the views of Islamic State group members on God and heaven. He accused his Islamist opponents of using the cartoon to settle scores with him.

The case against him was not the first and charges he previously faced included a case for insulting Jordan’s monarch, King Abdullah II. Hattar was a strong supporter of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad and advocated depriving Jordanians of Palestinian descent of their political rights.

The Jordanian government condemned the killing and indicated that an investigation was underway, but Hattar’s supporters said they held the government responsible for his death. Hattar’s cousin, Saad Hattar, told media outlets that Jordan’s prime minister ignited the public against the writer by ordering his arrest and putting him on trail for posting the cartoon.

Many social media posts in Jordan celebrated Hattar’s death, saying he deserved what he got for blaspheming.

In the wake of Hattar’s killing, Amman-based IPI Executive Board Member and World Press Freedom Hero Daoud Kuttab said that it showed a need to change the current atmosphere in Jordan.

“The killer of Jordanian writer Nahed Hattar is not a single individual but a cultural environment that criminalises thought and easily appoints blasphemy accusations on thinkers,” Kuttab said. “To remedy this problem we need to work hard on legitimising thought and ideas no matter whether we and our immediate community like them or not.”

IPI Director of Advocacy and Communications Steven M. Ellis agreed.

“We urge Jordanian authorities to bring Mr. Hattar’s killer to justice for this crime and to prevent future violence by working to create an atmosphere in which the expression of views that some may deem offensive is met with more speech or counterarguments, not violent retribution,” he said.