Custody for men facing deportation over cartoonist murder plot

Feb 14, 2008, 15:55 GMT

Copenhagen - A Danish court Thursday ordered two Tunisian nationals facing deportation to be held in custody for 27 days over allegations they planned to murder a newspaper cartoonist.

The two men were arrested Tuesday after security police said they had intervened to avert the alleged murder plot against Kurt Westergaard who drew a controversial cartoon depicting the Prophet Mohammed wearing a bomb as a turban.

The cartoon was one of 12 images published in September 2005 by the Jyllands-Posten newspaper. The cartoons sparked violent protests in 2006 and Danish companies were boycotted in many Muslim countries.

Leading Danish newspapers Wednesday republished the cartoon in what was said to be a necessary stand for freedom of expression.

No details were released Thursday over the suspicions against the two Tunisian nationals who were arrested along with a Moroccan-born Danish national, who has been released.

The two Tunisians said they would appeal the pending deportation order to the Minister for Refugees, Immigration and Integration, Danish news agency Ritzau reported.

A debate continued to rage over terrorist legislation that critics said did not provide suspects sufficient means to defend themselves in court against the allegations.

Two of the 12 cartoonists were quoted as telling public broadcaster DR that they shared these concerns.

'When the shock has subsided that one of our colleagues has apparently been threatened, we have to ask ourselves how we treat these people,' said a cartoonist whose name was withheld on advice from the security police.

'We don't know how serious these murder plans were. Are these people criminals or not? We will never know. That is very worrying,' he said.

Cartoonist Franz Fuchsel said he was 'very sad' over the state of affairs.