4 accused of targeting Danish prince to avenge Prophet caricatures

PanARMENIAN.Net - Danish prosecutors accused four alleged terrorists on Friday, April 13 of targeting the country's crown prince as part of a revenge attack on a Danish newspaper that printed caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad, The Associated Press reported.

Speaking to the court on the first day of the trial, prosecutor Henrik Plaehn said the four men -three Swedish citizens and one Swedish resident - had been arrested hours before an appearance by Crown Prince Frederik at the Politiken newspaper in Copenhagen.

The heir to the Danish throne was to distribute an annual sports award and Plaehn said prosecutors believed that terrorists had intended to launch a violent attack on the ceremony, which eventually took place as scheduled.

Plaehn also said the alleged terrorists were linked with Pakistan, a point he would try to prove during the trial.

Surrounded by heavily armed police, the four defendants were led in handcuffs into the media-packed courtroom just outside Copenhagen, the Danish capital, where they were accused of terrorism and illegal possession of weapons.

Though Swedish residents, the men - Munir Awad, Omar Abdalla Aboelazm, Mounir Ben Mohamed Dhahri and Sabhi Ben Mohamed Zalouti - are originally from Libya, Tunisia, Morocco and Lebanon. If found guilty, the four could face up to 16 years in prison. Prosecutors were expected to ask that they be deported from Denmark after serving their sentence.

Henrik Stagetorn, a lawyer for Dhahri, who is not a Swedish citizen, told The Associated Press before the trial that his client would plea guilty to the weapons violation but not guilty to the terrorism charge. The other three were likely to plea not guilty to both charges. A verdict in the trial expected in mid-June.