Arrests in Denmark Cartoonist Plot

UPDATE, February 14, 2008: Copenhagen police arrest six in fifth night of riots

Six youths were arrested in Copenhagen for setting cars and dumpsters ablaze and throwing stones at police in a fifth night of riots in a predominantly immigrant area of the Danish capital, police said Friday.

"We've had six arrests so far. They've been charged with throwing stones at police and setting fires to cars and waste containers," Chief Inspector Henrik Olesen of the Copenhagen police told AFP.

At least 11 cars were torched in various neighbourhoods of Copenhagen, and 10 others in the nearby town of Kokkedal.

On Thursday, 17 youths were arrested for rioting the previous night.

"We don't know why they're rioting. I think it's because they're bored. Some people say it's because of the cartoons but that's not my opinion," Olesen said.

He was referring to the reprinting of a controversial cartoon of the Prophet Mohammed in 17 Danish newspapers on Wednesday.

...Protests have flared up again in several Muslim countries including Kuwait and Pakistan following the reprinting. The Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas also condemned the publication.

The caricature was reprinted this week after Danish police uncovered a plot to kill the cartoonist.

Three people were arrested for planning the murder, including two Tunisians who have lived in Denmark for more than seven years and whom Denmark has decided to expel without a trial.

That decision has been heavily criticised by human rights associations and some politicians and legal experts in Denmark.

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It's been two years since the controversy over the cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed caused worldwide protests, rioting, and violence.

Muslim extremists have been working to assassinate one of the cartoonists. Thankfully, they've been unsuccessful.

COPENHAGEN, Denmark -- Danish authorities on Tuesday arrested three people suspected of plotting a cartoonist's assassination for his depiction of the Prophet Muhammad wearing a bomb-shaped turban that enraged Muslims two years ago.

Three of Denmark's largest newspapers said they would reprint the cartoon on Wednesday to show they would not be intimidated by fanatics. It was one of 12 Muhammad cartoons published in 2005 and then again in 2006 that led to protests in Muslim countries.

Investigators said they foiled the plot in its early stages in a pre-dawn raid in the western Denmark city of Aarhus. The police intelligence agency, PET, said two Tunisians and a Danish citizen of Moroccan origin were arrested.

"The case shows that, unfortunately, there are in Denmark groups of extremists that do not accept and respect the basic principles on which the Danish democracy has been built," Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen said.

Tuesday's arrests were meant "to prevent a terror-related assassination of one of the cartoonists behind the cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad," PET chief Jakob Scharf said. Investigators believe the plot had not advanced far enough to try the suspects.

Scharf said the 40-year-old Danish suspect faced a preliminary charge of violating a Danish terror law, but will likely be released after questioning. The two Tunisians will be expelled from Denmark, he said.

He did not name the intended target, but Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten said it was the paper's cartoonist, Kurt Westergaard.

Westergaard, 73, drew one of the 12 Muhammad caricatures that were first published by the paper on Sept. 30, 2005, and then reprinted by other Western media in early 2006.

...The cartoonist and his wife, Gitte, 66, have been living under police protection for more than three months because of "concrete murder plans" against him, Jyllands-Posten reported.

Westergaard told Denmark's TV2 News network that the couple had been forced to move between several locations, both in Denmark and abroad. He praised the intelligence service for their protection.

"They have certainly saved my life, I am convinced of that," he said.

Westergaard drew a cartoon. As a result he and his wife are under police protection and they can't live in one location too long.

Free speech sometimes comes at a very high price.
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Michelle Malkin: Mohammed cartoon reprint: Show your solidarity