Attack on Danish cartoonist act of terrorism, court rules

COPENHAGEN - A court in Denmark Thursday ruled that the attack by a Somali-born man on the Danish cartoonist who sparked outrage with his depiction of the Muslim Prophet Mohammed was an act of terrorism.

The court in the western city of Aarhus found the 29-year-old defendant guilty of attempted murder. He is to be sentenced Friday.

The 75-year-old cartoonist escaped unharmed after the man, armed with an axe and a knife, forced his way into Kurt Westergaard’s home on New Year’s Day in 2010.

Westergaard welcomed the ruling, saying: “I have always considered him a terrorist, who wanted to kill me.”

The defendant had testified that he had wanted to frighten Westergaard since he was angered by Westergaard’s 2005 cartoon, one of 12 published by the Jyllands-Posten newspaper.

The prosecutor had argued that the attack was an act of terrorism since it aimed at inciting “fear and chaos” at large.