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Danish cartoonist Kurt Westergaard - Source: Reuters -
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Danish prosecutors have added a terrorism charge to two charges
of attempted murder against a Somali man who broke into the home of
a cartoonist whose 2005 drawing of the Prophet Mohammad sparked
global Muslim outrage.
The 28-year-old man, who police have said has links to al Qaeda and
other militant organisations, was charged with attempting to kill
cartoonist Kurt Westergaard and a police officer on January 1 in
the town of Aarhus.
Marian Thomsen, chief prosecutor with the East Jutland Police, said
the charges were expanded because trying to kill Kurt Westergaard
had a bigger purpose than just killing him.
She declined to elaborate on the new charge which she said has yet
to be put before a court.
Under Danish law, certain crimes can bring penalties of up to life
in prison if they are deemed to be carried out with the intention
of terrorism.
The attempted murder charges alone would not lead to such a
severe sentence.
The man, whose name has not been released, broke into Westergaard's
home armed with an axe and a knife 10 days ago, but the illustrator
fled to a safe room and was unhurt.
Police who responded to an alarm shot and wounded the man in the
leg and hand and then arrested him after he threw the axe but
narrowly missed one officer, police have said.
The man has denied the charges of attempted murder but has not
denied being at Westergaard's home.
His attorney, Niels Christian Strauss, could not be reached
immediately but he told Danish news agency Ritzau that he would not
comment on the terrorism charge.
Danish police intelligence have accused the man of having links
with al Qaeda and with Somalia's al-Shabaab militant group and have
called the break-in at Westergaard's home a terror-related
assassination attempt.
Westergaard's 2005 picture of the Prophet Mohammad with a bomb in
his turban was one of 11 caricatures that infuriated many Muslims
and led to death threats.
Most Muslims consider any depiction of Mohammad as offensive, and
when other newspapers reprinted the caricatures in 2006 it
triggered violence in several countries.
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