Denmark: Cartoonist attackers sentenced to 12 years

COPENHAGEN: A Danish court sentenced four men to prison terms of 12 years yesterday for plotting a gun attack on a Danish newspaper in revenge for its publication in 2005 of blasphemous cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him).
The men, a Tunisian and three Swedish citizens of Arab origin, had denied charges of terrorism though one pleaded guilty to illegal weapons possession.
The four, arrested in a joint Danish-Swedish police operation at the end of 2010, were acquitted by a Danish court on two charges of weapons possession for technical reasons, court officials said.
Judge Katrine Eriksen told the court that the target of the attack was the offices of the newspaper Jyllands-Posten, which first published the dozen cartoons seven years ago.
Prosecutors said during the trial that the target of the suspected plot was likely an award ceremony celebrating the "Sporting Newcomer of the Year" at the Jyllands-Posten building.
In addition to a number of sports celebrities, Danish Crown Prince Frederik was present at the ceremony, but prosecutors said the four did not appear to have known he was there and that he was probably not their target.
All four men were residents in Sweden but Dhari, Awad and Aboelazm had travelled to Denmark by car and were arrested in a Copenhagen suburb on Dec. 29, 2010. Zalouti was arrested the same day in Sweden.
Chief prosecutor Gyrithe Ulrich urged the court to jail Dhahri for at least 16 years and sought at least 14 years jail for Awad, Aboelazm and Zalouti.
Zalouti's lawyer argued his client was repeatedly heard on surveillance recordings saying that he did not want to take part
so he should be treated
leniently.
Meanwhile, Jakob Scharf, head of Denmark's state security police, has likened the plot to the 2008 attack in Mumbai, when 10 Pakistani gunmen killed 166 people in a three-day assault at landmarks in the Indian city, including two hotels and a Jewish center.
The editor in chief of Jyllands-Posten and the chief executive of the publisher declined to comment on yesterday's verdict.
The paper was the first to print the set of a dozen cartoons caricaturing Islam and the Prophet in 2005. The images touched of riots in Muslim countries in the Middle East, Africa and Asia in 2006 in which at least 50 people died.
Last year a Somali was jailed for 10 years for the attempted murder of cartoonist Kurt Westergaard in a break-in at his home on New Year's Day 2010.