AARHUS – A Somali man charged with trying to kill the cartoonist behind the most controversial of the Danish caricatures of Prophet Mohammed (PBUH) only admitted to breaking in with an illegal weapon when his trial opened Wednesday.
Mohamed Geele, 29, had been set to appear before the district court in the central Danish town of Aarhus, but the hearing was moved to the larger Appeals Court to fit in the throngs of reporters and other onlookers who braved tight security to follow the trial.
The Somali man, who is suspected of breaking into 75-year-old Kurt Westergaard’s home on January 1 last year wielding an axe and trying to kill him, could face life in prison if found guilty on all counts: attempted terrorism, attempted murder, attacking a police officer and illegal arms possession.
His lawyer, Niels Strauss, meanwhile told the packed court that “my client only admits to illegal arms possession and breaking and entering.”
Westergaard however tells another story.
Geele “broke down the front door with an axe and destroyed the television set and computer in the living room, screaming in Danish that he was going to kill me because I had offended the Muslim prophet,” Westergaard told AFP on the eve of the trial.
