Attacker of Danish Mohammed cartoonist stands trial

A Somali man charged with trying to kill the cartoonist behind the most controversial of the Danish caricatures of Prophet Mohammed only admitted to breaking in with an illegal weapon when his trial opened on Wednesday. 

Albert Jankowski

Mohamed Geele, 29, had been set to appear before the district court in the central Danish town of Aarhus, but the hearing was moved to the larger Appeals Court to fit in the crowds of reporters and other onlookers following the trial.

The Somali man, who is accused of breaking into 75-year-old Kurt Westergaard's home on 1 January last year wielding an axe and trying to kill him, could face life in prison if found guilty on all counts: attempted terrorism, attempted murder, attacking a police officer and illegal arms possession.

His lawyer, Niels Strauss, told the court that "my client only admits to illegal arms possession and breaking and entering".

Westergaard claims that Geele meant to kill him.

The attacker is believed by Danish intelligence to be close to the Islamist movement al-Shebab, which has declared allegiance to Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda.

Westergaard has faced numerous death threats since the publication of his drawing in the Jyllands-Posten newspaper in 2005. It appeared to show the Prophet Mohammed wearing a turban shaped like a bomb with a lit fuse.

Jyllands-Posten, too, has been the subject of a string of attack plots, the most recent one foiled at the end of December.

Geele's trial is set to last for nine days and the verdict is expected around the first week of February.