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2008-02-13 11:17:18
Danish newspapers have reprinted a caricature satirising the Prophet Muhammad
which sparked violent protests across the Muslim world two years ago.
They say they wanted to show their commitment to freedom of speech after an
alleged plot to kill one of the cartoonist who drew 12 caricatures.
Three suspects were held in Denmark on Tuesday "to prevent a murder linked to
terrorism", officials said.
The cartoons were originally published by Jyllands-Posten in September 2005.
Danish embassies were attacked around the world and dozens died in riots that
followed.
'Defiant'
Jyllands-Posten and several other leading newspapers - including Politiken and
Berlingske Tidende - reprinted the caricature in their Wednesday editions.
I have turned fear into anger and resentment
Kurt Westergaard
Cartoonist
The cartoon depicts Muhammad wearing a turban shaped like a bomb with a lit
fuse.
"We are doing this to document what is at stake in this case, and to
unambiguously back and support the freedom of speech that we as a newspaper
will always defend," Berlingske Tidende said.
One Danish tabloid published all 12 drawings, the Associated Press news agency
reported.
On Tuesday, the head of the Danish Security and Intelligence Service (Pet),
Jakob Sharf, said its operatives had carried out pre-dawn raids in the Aarhus
region.
The three suspects - two Tunisians and a Dane of Moroccan origin - had been
detained "after lengthy surveillance", he added.
The Danish citizen will be released pending further investigation, while the
Tunisians will be held until they are expelled from the country.
The Pet did not identify the target of the alleged plot, but the online edition
of Jyllands-Posten said its cartoonist, Kurt Westergaard, was the focus.
The newspaper, based in Aarhus, said Mr Westergaard, 73, and his 66-year-old
wife, Gitte, had been under police protection for the past three months.
In a statement on Jyllands-Posten's website, Mr Westergaard said: "Of course I
fear for my life when the police intelligence service say that some people have
concrete plans to kill me.
"But I have turned fear into anger and resentment."
The editor of Jyllands-Posten, Carsten Juste, said he and his staff had been
"deeply shaken" by the news.
"We'd become more or less used to death threats and bomb threats since the
cartoons, but it's the first time that we've heard about actual murder plans -
that's new," he said.
Muslim anger
The BBC's Thomas Buch-Andersen in Copenhagen says the arrests have stunned
people in Denmark, where the furore over the cartoons was thought to have
passed.
Mr Westergaard was one of 12 artists behind the drawings but he was responsible
for what was considered the most controversial of the pictures.
The cartoons were later reprinted by more than 50 newspapers, triggering a wave
of protests in parts of the Muslim world.
The demonstrations culminated a year ago with the torching of Danish diplomatic
offices in Damascus and Beirut and dozens of deaths in Nigeria, Libya and
Pakistan.