COPENHAGEN, June 4 (Reuters) - A Danish court on Monday found four men guilty of plotting to kill a large number of people at a newspaper in revenge for its publication in 2005 of cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad.
The men, three Swedish citizens and a Tunisian, had pleaded not guilty to the charges though one of them had pleaded guilty to illegal possession of weapons.
The men, who were arrested in a joint Danish-Swedish police operation at the end of 2010, were found guilty on the main charge of terrorism but were acquiited on two charges of weapons possession for technical reasons, court officials said.
Judge Katrine Eriksen told the court that the target of the planned attack was the offices of the newspaper Jyllands-Posten, which first published the dozen cartoons seven years ago and that the goal was to kill as many people as possible there.
"The accused...are guilty of terrorism, Eriksen said. "(They) agreed and prepared acts to kill people."
Convicted were Mounir Ben Mohamed Dhahri, a Tunisian citizen, Munir Awad a Swedish citizen born in Lebanon, Omar Abdalla Aboelazm, a Swedish citizen born in Sweden to a Swedish mother and Egyptian father, and Sahbi Ben Mohamed Zalouti, a Swedish citizen of Tunisian origin.
(Reporting by Mette Fraende; Editing by Angus MacSwan)
We welcome comments that advance the story through relevant opinion, anecdotes, links and data. If you see a comment that you believe is irrelevant or inappropriate, you can flag it to our editors by using the report abuse links. Views expressed in the comments do not represent those of the Thomson Reuters Foundation. For more information see our Acceptable Use Policy.
comments powered by Disqus