'Prophet' cartoonist escapes attacker

Published on Saturday 2 January 2010 18:54

A SOMALI man with links to al-Qaeda broke in to the home of the artist responsible for a controversial Danish cartoon of the Prophet Mohammed, police said last night.

&#149 Danish cartoonist Kurt Westergaard

The 28-year-old man, armed with a knife and axe, failed to catch Kurt Westergaard after the 74-year-old and his five-year-old granddaughter escaped into a fortified panic room, police said.

The attacker threw his axe at a policeman who came to rescue Westergaard before being shot in the hand and the knee by other officers late on Friday night in the Danish city of Aarhus.

The man, who is now under heavy guard in a Danish hospital after formally being charged with attempting to murder both Westergaard and the police officer, had "close ties to the Somali terror organisation al-Shabaab as well as to al-Qaeda leaders in east Africa", the Danish security and intelligence service, PET, said in a statement.

PET also said the man, who had a legal residence permit for Denmark, was "suspected of being involved in terror-related activities in east Africa". But the agency declined to name the man, whose identity is protected by Danish privacy laws.

The security service said the man had been involved in a "terror-related network" that had long been under investigation in connection with threats to the artist.

"PET looks very seriously upon this case, which once again confirms the terror threat directed against Denmark and the cartoonist Kurt Westergaard in particular," the organisation's chief, Jakob Scharf, said in the statement.

Scharf added that police were investigating whether the Somali man acted alone in the attempted attack at Westergaard's home, which is widely described as a "fortress".

The artist had sparked global outrage among Muslims when several newspapers published his caricature in 2006, a year after it first appeared in Denmark. His picture was one of 12 by a number of artists and showed the Prophet with a bomb in his turban.

It was considered by many Muslims, both moderate and militant, to be by far the most offensive of those printed.

Most Muslims consider any depiction of the founder of Islam as unacceptable and Westergaard's cartoon sparked serious violence.

Three Danish embassies were attacked and at least 50 people were killed in rioting in the Middle East, Africa and Asia. Several young Muslims have since been convicted in Denmark of planning bomb attacks, partly in protest at the cartoons.

Last year, US authorities arrested two men in Chicago who were suspected of planning attacks on Westergaard and his newspaper Jyllands-Posten, which first published the caricatures. There is said to be a $1million bounty for Westergaard's killing.

It is understood Westergaard was "quite shocked" but was not injured in the incident. He is thought to have realised his assailant was trying to break in to his home, pressed an alarm and fled with his visiting five-year-old granddaughter to a specially made safe room.

Westergaard told Danish television that his attacker had screamed abuse at him. He said: "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 (to do this].

"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."

Westergaard came out of hiding last spring, saying he wanted to defend his actions. Yesterday he told Jyllands-Posten, he was once again in a secure location.

Fritz Keldsen, deputy chief superintendent of Aarhus city police, said officers had arrived at Westergaard's home "in strong numbers" after receiving the emergency call.

He said: "When we saw the suspect, he was moving away from the scene. Then he attacked the police patrol. He did that with such skill that they had to shoot him."

The suspect was last night said to be in a serious condition but his life is not in danger.

Late yesterday, at a special hearing in Aarhus, Denmark's second-largest city, the Somali denied trying to murder both Westergaard and a police officer. He had to be carried in to court on a stretcher to make his plea.

Denmark has refused calls to apologise to the Muslim world for allowing the pictures to be published. When the crisis first flared up, then prime minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen distanced himself from the cartoons but resisted calls to apologise for them, citing freedom of speech and saying his government could not be held responsible for the actions of Denmark's press. Moderate Muslims in Denmark yesterday condemned the attack on Westergaard, but said they still believed his drawings were offensive.

Somalia is increasingly seen in the West as being as important as Afghanistan in the war on terror.

Much of the country is controlled by al-Shabaab, a group that strongly sympathises with al-Qaeda.

Al-Shabaab was yesterday involved in heavy fighting with a group that supports the moderate UN and US-backed government of Somalia. At least ten people died.