The jury didn’t buy Mohamed Geele’s claims that “I was irritated and frustrated by his comments. I wanted to frighten him but not to kill him.”
Westergaard’s account, via the Canadian Press:
“I thought to myself: Now it’s happening,” Westergaard recalled.
He heard his then 6-year-old granddaughter Stephanie scream from the living room, as the axe-wielding attacker tried to break down the door of the panic room.
“Then the longest minutes of my life started,” Westergaard said. “He hammered the axe against the door and I wondered whether the door would resist. Would he leave Stephanie unharmed?”
All for a cartoon. And while the spotlight has been on Westergaard, there is no telling what impact the incident has had on his granddaughter. But prosecutors are only seeking 12 years for Geele. “Jury convicts Danish cartoonist’s attacker,” from CNN, February 3:
(CNN) — A 29-year-old Somali man was found guilty Thursday of attacking a Danish political cartoonist known for his drawing of the Muslim prophet Mohammed with a turban shaped as a bomb, authorities said.
“The Muslim prophet Muhammad.” It’s refreshing not to have to ask “Whose prophet?” for a change.
In a unanimous verdict, Mohamed Geele was found guilty of attempted terrorism, attempted manslaughter and attacking a police officer with a knife and an ax, said Danish Prosecutor Lene Lemt.
Geele was accused of trying to break into the home of cartoonist Kurt Westergaard on January 1, 2010. He was shot in the right leg and left hand by an officer during the incident and hospitalized for his wounds.
At the time, Danish intelligence officials had linked him to an East African Islamist militia allied with al Qaeda.
Prosecutors are seeking 12 years in prison for Geele, who is scheduled to be sentenced on Friday.
Al-Shabaab, the militant organization with alleged ties to Geele, is waging a bloody battle against Somalia’s transitional government and is currently on a U.S. government list of terrorist organizations.
At a January 2010 news conference in the Somali capital of Mogadishu, al-Shabaab spokesman Sheikh Ali Mohamud Rage said, “We are very happy with the Somali national who attacked the house of the Danish cartoonist who previously insulted our prophet Mohammed. This is an honor for the Somali people. We are telling that we are glad that anyone who insults Islam should be attacked wherever they are.”…