Denmark - intruder arrested

Man shot in murder attempt of Danish cartoonist

Article published on the 2010-01-02 Latest update 2010-01-02 11:39 TU

Danish cartoonist Kurt Westergaard
(Photo: Reuters)

Danish police have shot and arrested a Somali man who tried to murder a cartoonist whose depictions of the prophet Mohammed infuriated Muslims. The Somali national broke into the home of the cartoonist, who was with his infant granddaughter.

The 28-year-old Somali lives in Denmark, but has not been identified by police. He entered the property of Kurt Westergaard in the western city of Aarhus late Friday before being shot and wounded.

The internal security service PET said the man had terrorist intentions and was close to the radical Somali Shebab movement and leaders of Al-Qaeda in east Africa.

Westergaard has received several death threats since a Danish newspaper five years ago published his drawing featuring Mohammed wearing a turban in the shape of a bomb.

"I locked myself in our safe room and alerted the police. He tried to smash the entrance door with an axe, but he didn't manage," Westergaard, 74, told Danish news agency Ritzau.

"He used insults, I don't remember which, but it was bad language. He spoke poor Danish and he wound up saying he'd be back."

Bent Preben Nielsen, chief police inspector for East Jutland, said police fired after the man threatened them with an axe and a knife, hitting him in the hip and the right hand.

The Somali, who was taken to hospital but whose injuries were not life-threatening, would be charged with "attempted murder of Kurt Westergaard and a policeman," East Jutland police chief Mikael Larsen said.

Two Tunisians were arrested in Denmark in 2008 on suspicion of planning to murder Westergaard, and later released without trial after they appealed a government order for their expulsion on national security grounds.