AFP - A Somali man charged with trying to kill the cartoonist behind the most controversial of the Danish caricatures of Prophet Mohammed 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.
The cartoonist, who was alone at home at the time with his five-year-old granddaughter, rushed into a bathroom that had been fortified and transformed into a panic room to "seek safety and call the police."
Police arrived at the scene just "three, four minutes after my call," Westergaard said.
The man came out wielding his axe and a knife at police, who shot him twice and wounded him before placing him under arrest.
According to Danish intelligence police, he is believed to be close to the Islamist movement al-Shebab, which has declared allegiance to Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda extremist network and controls most of southern and central Somalia.
Westergaard has faced numerous death threats since the publication of his drawing of what appears to be the Prophet Mohammed wearing a turban shaped like a bomb with a lit fuse.
It appeared in the Jyllands-Posten daily on September 30, 2005 along with 11 other cartoons of the Muslim prophet in what was meant to be part of a debate on self-censorship and freedom of speech.
The drawings sparked angry and even deadly protests across the Muslim world in early 2006 and again in early 2008, after numerous papers republished Westergaard's drawing following the unravelling of a plan to assassinate him.
Jyllands-Posten, too, has been the subject of a string of attack plots, the most recent one foiled at the end of December when Danish and Swedish police arrested five men they said had been planing to massacre staff at the paper's Copenhagen offices.
Geele's trial is set to last for nine days and the verdict is expected around the first week of February.
Westergaard, who is scheduled to testify Thursday, said he thought his attacker would receive "a heavy prison sentence."
"I do not want to excuse his actions, but I would really like to understand how he got to that point. Maybe he was manipulated," the cartoonist suggests, insisting more than five years after his drawing first appeared that it does not represent Mohammed.
"I made a caricature of a terrorist who evokes Islam and who abuses it, as some would say," said Westergaard, who today is closely watched over by bodyguards.
"I have got used to this situation. But I am not a prisoner. I can go where I want, thanks to my guardian angels," he said.
Wednesday, 19 January 2011
Alleged attacker of Danish cartoonist goes on trial
Tunisians in fresh protests against new government
With stores reopened, traffic humming, and police standing guard, the atmosphere in the Tunisian capital on Wednesday was relatively normal compared to the violent clashes of previous days.
Still, hundreds of protesters marched through the centre of Tunis Wednesday singing nationalist songs and holding up anti-government signs.
Social media has played a key part in ensuring that the revolution against former President Ben Ali’s regime has lost none of its fire. Calls have continued on Facebook and in text messages for fresh protests against members of Ben Ali’s RCD party still in power after his ouster, despite efforts by the newly announced national unity to restore order.
‘RCD, Get Out’
The national unity cabinet was expected to hold its first meeting later in the day, with Prime Minister Mohammed Ghannouchi under pressure from opposition leaders who contend that allies of former President Ben Ali should not be in the government.
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While some Tunisian Web users said the transition government should be allowed time to prepare reforms, the anti-RCD mood has not seemed to flag. One of the major Facebook groups through which Tunisians have been organising their demonstrations is called “RCD Dégage”, which means “RCD, Get Out”. The group’s page is flooded with messages like “Down with the RCD” written by users who have put that slogan front and centre in their profile photos.
Many have also posted a video of crowds of Tunisian protesters in the street waving their hands in the air while chanting “Dégage”, which means “Get out”. The moment shown in the video is being celebrated as an iconic turning point signifying the beginning of the fall of the Ben Ali regime.
Other Facebook users have been urging “another January 14”, referring to the day on which mass street protests ended up driving Ben Ali to flee the country. Aside from Tunis, Sousse (a city in Ben Ali’s native region) and Sfax, the second biggest Tunisian city, have been targeted as potential sites for large demonstrations.
After the start of protests in mid-December, the Tunisian government blocked Facebook pages created by protesters and arrested a handful of bloggers. But as in Iran’s Green Revolution, social media have enabled young Tunisians to at least partly circumvent the government’s control of information.
Somali attacker 'only aimed to scare Danish cartoonist'
AFP - A Somali man charged with trying to kill a Dane who caricatured the Prophet Mohammed pleaded not guilty to attempted murder on the first day of his trial Wednesday, insisting he had only aimed to scare the cartoonist.
"I was irritated and frustrated by his comments. I wanted to frighten him but not to kill him," Mohamed Geele, 29, told a packed court in the central Danish town of Aarhus, speaking calmly in Danish.
The Somali -- whose identity was only officially revealed on Wednesday -- had been set to appear before the district court but the hearing was moved to the larger Aarhus Appeals Court to fit in the throngs of reporters and other onlookers who braved tight security to follow the trial.
Geele, 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."
Geele, who Danish intelligence police say is linked to the Somali Islamist movement Al-Shebab, insisted he had "bought the axe to help a friend cut down a tree."
"But I brought it with me to Aarhus because I was very angry with (Westergaard) and wanted to break down his door to talk with him," acknowledged the defendant, who appeared calm and collected before the court, wearing a black sweater, jeans and glasses.
Geele, who had an obvious limp from injuries he sustained during his arrest, stressed that he was "a Muslim who follows the precepts of Islam and who prays and goes to the mosque."
On the night of January 1, 2010, the Somali "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.
The cartoonist, who was alone at home at the time with the five-year-old daughter of a friend, rushed into a bathroom that had been fortified and transformed into a panic room to "seek safety and call the police."
When police arrived, Geele came out wielding his axe and a knife. He was shot twice and placed under arrest.
At the opening of Wednesday's trial, prosecutor Kristen Dyrman played recordings of Westergaard's two frightened calls to police that night for the nine jury members.
"He is breaking down the door! It's very violent. You must come immediately," the cartoonist screamed, insisting: "You must come now or I won't survive. He is going to kill me!"
Before Geele took a train and taxi from his home in Copenhagen to Westergaard's house in Viby, near Aarhus, he had "shaved his entire body and his clothes smelled strongly of perfume," the prosecutor said, hinting that the man had performed a "ritual" often carried out by those who want to die as martyrs.
She also said police had found a computer at the Red Cross centre where Geele worked that he had used to conduct research on axes and to locate Westergaard's home.
The cartoonist has faced numerous death threats since the publication of his drawing of the Prophet Mohammed wearing a turban shaped like a bomb with a lit fuse.
It appeared in the Jyllands-Posten daily on September 30, 2005 along with 11 other cartoons of the Muslim prophet, and sparked angry and even deadly protests across the Islamic world in early 2006.
Westergaard, who is scheduled to testify Thursday, told AFP on Tuesday he thought his attacker would receive "a heavy prison sentence."
"I do not want to excuse his actions, but I would really like to understand how he got to that point. Maybe he was manipulated," he said.
Geele's trial is set to last for nine days and the verdict is expected around the first week of February.
Federer edges Simon in Aussie Open thriller
AFP - Defending champion Roger Federer survived a five-set thriller to overcome Frenchman Gilles Simon and squeeze into the third round at the Australian Open on Wednesday.
Federer had to pull out all stops to get past the unseeded Simon, winning 6-2, 6-3, 4-6, 4-6, 6-3 in 3hr 13min on Rod Laver Arena.
The Swiss world number two had cruised to a two-set advantage, but Simon, who had won their only other two encounters, hit back spectacularly to take the contest into a fifth and deciding set.
Federer was relieved to escape with a five-set victory and prevent losing for the first time in the second round at a Grand Slam event since the 2003 French Open.
"Today I got lucky to go through," Federer said.
"He's a great player. Matches against him don't come easy and they always go the distance. Hopefully I won't play him any more," he laughed.
Federer will next play Belgium's Xavier Malisse in Friday's third round.
Federer's victory equalled Swede Stefan Edberg's record (56-10) for the most Open Era wins at the Australian Open. Federer now has a 56-7 win-loss record at Melbourne Park.
The all-time Grand Slam champion with 16 major titles is bidding to become the second man to win five Australian titles behind six-time winner Roy Emerson.
China 'logs double-digit growth in 2010'
AFP - China's economy grew 10.3 percent last year but inflation exceeded the government's full-year target, Hong Kong-based Phoenix Television said on its website Wednesday.
The broadcaster cited unnamed central bank sources as saying the figures had been "leaked" a day before the government was due to release key economic data for December and for 2010.
The growth in gross domestic product compares with a revised increase of 9.2 percent in 2009 and marks the fastest annual expansion since the onset of the global financial crisis -- defying Beijing's efforts to cool the economy.
Analysts had predicted that the world's second largest economy grew by around 10 percent last year on the back of strong demand for Chinese exports and massive investment in the country's property sector.
China's consumer price index, a key measure of inflation, rose 3.3 percent from a year earlier over the 12 months, exceeding Beijing's full-year target of three percent as food costs soared, the report said.
However December inflation slowed to 4.6 percent year-on-year compared with 5.1 percent in November, which was the fastest pace in more than two years.
"It might take some of the air out of the argument that China is about to experience runaway inflation," said Mark Williams, an economist at London-based research firm Capital Economics.
The producer price index, which measures the cost of goods at the factory gate, jumped 5.9 percent over the year, as manufacturers passed on the surging cost of global commodities.
Beijing has been trying to slow the economy and bring inflation under control amid fears that soaring food and property costs are straining household budgets and threatening to spark social unrest.
Analysts have blamed the government's massive stimulus measures over the past two years to combat the financial crisis for flooding the market with liquidity, which in turn has led to rising housing prices and inflation.
Authorities have taken repeated steps to turn off the spigot of bank lending that saw new loans nearly double to 9.6 trillion yuan in 2009 as banks heeded the government's call to spur the economy amid the downturn.
The central bank on Friday again ordered banks to increase the amount of money they keep in reserve, effectively putting a cap on lending, after raising interest rates for the second time since October.
Policymakers aim to cut new lending for 2011 by 10 percent from last year, state media reported Tuesday, after new loans in 2010 hit 7.95 trillion yuan, exceeding the 7.5 trillion-yuan official target.
Property prices have remained stubbornly high, despite a range of government measures such as hiking minimum down payments on property transactions to at least 30 percent in a bid to avoid a damaging price bubble.
Housing prices in China's major cities posted their fourth straight month-on-month rise in December and sales picked up pace -- putting the cost of an apartment out of the reach of many first-home buyers.
Other data to be released by the National Bureau of Statistics on Thursday includes fixed-asset investment, industrial production and retail sales.
Kremlin warns over Yukos verdict fallout
AFP - A top Kremlim aide on Wednesday admitted that investors would see a greater risk in putting their money in Russia following the new jail term handed to imprisoned tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky.
The unusually outspoken remarks by the Kremlin's top economic advisor Arkady Dvorkovich marked the first time that a top Russian official has admitted the verdict for the ex-Yukos chief could spark a negative investor fallout.
"I think there will be serious questions from a significant part of the international community and the assessment of the risks of working in Russia will increase," Dvorkovich said in an interview with online newspaper Gazeta.ru.
His comments also came days after British energy giant BP signed a huge Arctic exploration accord with Russia's largest oil firm, state-controlled Rosneft, in one of the biggest international deals in its post-Soviet history.
The deal has proved hugely contentious abroad, partly because Rosneft was able to climb to its dominant position by acquiring major assets of the broken-up Yukos in controversial auctions organised by the state.
Dvorkovich said the case would be a major topic when President Dmitry Medvedev attends the World Economic Forum in Davos and gives a keynote speech to global economic policymakers at the end of the month.
"As for the losses in image and the attitude of investors, in a week in Davos we will see how all members of the Russian delegation are asked these questions and we will know the attitude of investors."
Khodorkovsky's lead lawyer Vadim Klyuvgant told the Interfax news agency that a revision of the risk outlook by investors in Russia "had already taken place" after the new verdict.
A Moscow court on December 30 sentenced Khodorkovsky to 14 years in jail after finding him guilty of money laundering and embezzlement after a trial condemned by the West as politically motivated.
He was already serving jail time from a sentence from an earlier conviction in 2005. Under the terms of the new verdict, Khodorkovsky will stay in jail until 2017.
His supporters have long alleged the magnate was jailed in political revenge for daring to finance opposition to strongman Vladimir Putin and the second trial rattled investors as proof of the perils of business in Russia.
Dvorkovich declined to give his view on the outcome of the trial, saying it was a judicial matter, but noted that the court's decision was not final.
"It's clear that all procedures have not been exhausted, there will be appeals and examinations in different courts. To say that the trial is completely over is wrong."
Dvorkovich, a fanatical chess player seen as one of the most fervent proponents of reform on the Medvedev team, also did not shy away from a swipe at the government of Putin.
He said while the premier's work had been "effective" over the last two years there were still many problems in Russia, "including with the investment climate".
"And of course the government bears its share of the responsibility for this and the premier has said this many times himself," he added.
Dvorkovich hailed the BP-Rosneft deal as an example of what should be normal practice in Russia and said it could prove to be one of the "star" transactions of 2011.
Under the terms of the deal, Rosneft will hold five per cent of BP?s ordinary voting shares in exchange for approximately 9.5 per cent of Rosneft?s shares.
"This is a completely logical step not just in the logic of exchanging assets in the energy sector but also in privatisation," he said.
S. Sudan hits majority needed for independence
AFP - South Sudan has achieved the majority needed to break away in an independence vote, partial preliminary results collated by AFP showed on Wednesday, with many counties still to report.
The figures gathered from state and county referendum commission chairmen showed that 2,198,422 votes for independence have already been returned, comfortably exceeding the simple majority of 1.89 million votes needed for secession on the 96 percent turnout of the 3,932,588 registered voters.
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