COPENHAGEN (AFP) — Danish police arrested three people Tuesday suspected of plotting to kill one of the cartoonists who sparked angry protests from Muslims worldwide in 2006 by drawing caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed.
Operatives "conducted a police operation at 4:30 am (0330 GMT) in the Aarhus region, in cooperation with local police, to prevent a murder linked to terrorism", said Jakob Scharf, head of Denmark's intelligence agency PET.
The raid was carried out "after lengthy surveillance," he said, but added that PET did not have enough evidence to hold the suspects.
The agency "didn't want to take any unnecessary risks" and chose to "intervene at a very early phase to put an end to these plans to carry out the murder," he explained in a statement.
PET said the three suspects were a Dane of Moroccan origin and two Tunisian nationals. The Dane was due to be released after questioning and the Tunisians, deemed a threat to national security, were to be expelled from the country.
The intelligence agency did not disclose their identities.
Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen said he was "deeply concerned by these suspicions of a very serious crime, which unfortunately demonstrates that there are extremist groups in Denmark that do not recognise or respect the basic principles of society."
"In Denmark, we are free not only to think and speak as we please, but also to draw what we want. And the government will protect this freedom of expression," he stressed.
The online edition of Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten, which published the cartoons in its print edition in September 2005, identified the cartoonist who was targeted by the plot as Kurt Westergaard.
Westergaard was one of 12 cartoonists who drew caricatures for the newspaper. His was considered the most controversial, featuring the prophet's head with a turban that looked like a bomb with a lit fuse.
Westergaard, 73, and his wife Gitte have been provided with heavy police protection for the past three months and were moved frequently to secret locations after they received death threats, the newspaper said.
Jyllands-Posten, whose headquarters are in Aarhus in western Denmark, said the threats were concrete.
The Danish Mohammed cartoons were considered offensive by many Muslims and their publication sparked violent protests in a number of Muslim countries in January and February 2006.
Demonstrators burned Danish flags and threatened the Scandinavian country. The protests culminated in February 2006 with the torching of Danish diplomatic offices in Damascus and Beirut and dozens of deaths in Nigeria, Libya and Pakistan.
Westergaard said in a statement to Jyllands-Posten that he "feared for his life."
"I've only done my job and I continue to do so. But I think the consequences of this crazy reaction will continue as long as I live. It is sad but this has become my life," he said.
The editor-in-chief of Jyllands-Posten, Carsten Juste, said Tuesday on the paper's website that it was "shameful that a man who is doing his job well and in accordance with Danish law and press ethics is rewarded with demonisation and concrete murder threats."
The news of the murder plot was vehemently condemned across Denmark's political sphere as well as the head of the Islamic Community, the biggest Muslim association in the country.
"There is freedom of expression in Denmark... and it doesn't help our cause when some people want to seek out their own form of justice," the head of the association, Kassem Ahmad, said.
However, Danish opposition parties criticised the decision to expel the Tunisians without a judicial process, as is allowed under anti-terrorism laws adopted in 2002 following the US attacks of September 11, 2001.
Per Clausen, spokesman for the leftist Unity List party, said it was "very worrying that people who have lived several years in Denmark can be expelled without judgement."
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