Arrests made in Denmark in cartoonist murder plot

Copenhagen: Several people were arrested in Denmark on Tuesday in connection with a plot to murder one of the 12 cartoonists whose drawings of the Prophet Mohammad caused worldwide uproar in 2006, Danish media said.

According to Jyllands-Posten, the newspaper that originally published the cartoons in September 2005, the suspects are accused of planning to kill 73-year-old Kurt Westergaard.

He drew the cartoon that caused the most controversy, depicting Mohammad with a bomb in his turban.

Danish news agency Ritzau said police would not give details of the case before the Security and Intelligence Service holds a news conference later in the day to announce the arrests.

The cartoons initially went largely unnoticed, but were later reprinted outside Denmark and eventually provoked outrage among Muslims, most of whom deem any depiction of Mohammad as offensive.

Three Danish embassies were attacked and at least 50 people were killed in rioting in the Middle East and Asia. Since then, several young Muslims have been convicted in Denmark of planning bomb attacks partly as a protest against the cartoons.