Danish police foil attempt on Prophet cartoonists life

Police shot a Somali man wielding an ax and a knife after he broke into the home of an artist whose cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad with a bomb-shaped turban outraged the Muslim world....

Police shot a Somali man wielding an ax and a knife after he broke into the home of an artist whose cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad with a bomb-shaped turban outraged the Muslim world,the head of PET,Denmarks intelligence agency said Saturday.

Jakob Scharf said in a statement that a 28-year-old man with ties to al-Qaeda entered Kurt Westergaards home in Aarhus Friday night. But Westergaard pressed an alarm and police arrived minutes later.

The man who was charged with two counts of attempted murder,one on Westergaard and one on a police officer,denied the charges at a court hearing on Saturday. He was wheeled into the court on a stretcher from the hospital where he was being treated.

Chief Superintendent Ole Madsen in Aarhus said,He will be in custody for four weeks,and in isolation for two,adding that the Somali would be moved to the Vestre Faengsel prison in Aarhus,which has medical facilities. The court also banned publication of the man’s name.

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 attack on the artist,whose rendering was among 12 that led to the torching of Danish diplomatic offices in predominantly Muslim countries in 2006,was terror related, Scharf said.

Westergaard,whose 5-year-old granddaughter was in the home on a sleepover,sought shelter in a specially made safe room when the suspect broke a window of the home,said Preben Nielsen of the Aarhus police.

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Officers arrived two minutes later and tried to arrest the assailant,who wielded an ax at a police officer. The officer then shot the man in a knee and a hand,authorities said. Nielsen said the suspect was hospitalised but his life was not in danger. The arrested man has,according to PETs information,close relations to the Somali terrorist group al-Shabab and al-Qaeda leaders in eastern Africa, Scharf said. Scharf said that the man ,who had a permit to stay in Denmark,had been under PETs surveillance but not in connection with Westergaard.

Westergaard could not be reached for comment. However,he told his employer,the Jyllands-Posten daily,that the assailant shouted revenge and blood as he tried to enter the bathroom where Westergaard and the child had sought shelter.