Danish cartoonist attacked

Danish cartoonist attacked

Jan M. Olsen | AP COPENHAGEN: A Somali man was charged Saturday with two counts of attempted murder for an attack on a Danish artist whose 2005 cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) ignited riots and outrage across the Muslim world. The 28-year-old Somali broke into Kurt Westergaard's home in Aarhus on Friday night armed with an ax and a knife, said Jakob Scharf, head of Denmark's PET intelligence agency. The 75-year-old artist, who has been the target of several death threats since drawing the offensive cartoon, pressed an alarm and fled with his five-year-old granddaughter to a specially made safe room. Officers arrived two minutes later and tried to arrest the assailant, but then shot him in the hand and knee when he threatened them with the ax, said Preben Nielsen of the Aarhus police. Nielsen said the man's wounds were serious but not life-threatening, and Westergaard was "quite shocked" by the attack but was not injured. The Somali man denied the charges at a court hearing Saturday in Aarhus, Denmark's second largest city, 200 km northwest of Copenhagen. Accompanied by a lawyer, he was wheeled into the court on a stretcher from the hospital where he was being treated. Chief Superintendent Ole Madsen in Aarhus said the man was charged with two counts of attempted murder: one on Westergaard and one on a police officer. The court also banned publication of the man's name. "He will be in custody for four weeks, and in isolation for two," Madsen said, adding that the Somali would be moved to the Vestre Faengsel prison in Aarhus, which has medical facilities. His defense lawyer, Niels Christian Strauss, told reporters outside the court he had urged his client to remain silent during the hearing to give him more time to examine the evidence. The Somali man had won an asylum case and received a residency permit to stay in Denmark, Scharf said, declaring the Friday attack "terror related." "The arrested man has, according to PET's information, close relations to the Somali group Shabab and Al-Qaeda leaders in eastern Africa," Scharf said. He said the man is suspected of having been involved in terror-related activities in East Africa and had been under PET's surveillance but not in connection with Westergaard. Westergaard could not be reached for comment. However, he told his employer, the Jyllands-Posten newspaper, that the assailant shouted "Revenge!" and "Blood!" as he tried to enter the bathroom where Westergaard and the child had sought shelter.