A Danish appeals court on Tuesday upheld a guilty verdict of a Somali man convicted of attempted murder and terrorism for his axe attack on a cartoonist who caricatured the Prophet Mohammed.
‘The High Court has also found the defendant guilty of attempted terrorism in having tried to kill Kurt Westergaard and has for the most part upheld the lower court’s reasons in determining guilt,’ the court in Viborg in central Denmark said in its ruling.
Mohamed Geele, 29, was found guilty by the lower court in February and sentenced to nine years in prison to be followed by permanent expulsion from Denmark.
Both the defence and prosecution appealed that ruling, with Geele insisting the attack had nothing to do with terrorism and calling for his sentence to be cut by three years, and the prosecution demanding he be handed three more years behind bars.
The appeals court is set to determine on Wednesday if his sentence should be altered in any way.
Court documents showed on Tuesday that three of the six jury members disagreed with the guilty verdict for attempted terrorism, but the lower court ruling was upheld with the support of the three remaining jurors and all three judges.