Men jailed over plot to attack Danish newspaper

Two men accused of plotting to attack a Danish newspaper that caricatured the Prophet Mohamed were found guilty of terror charges in Norway yesterday.

The Oslo district court sentenced Mikael Davud to seven years in prison and Shawan Sadek Saeed Bujak to three-and-a-half years. Judge Oddmund Svarteberg said Davud "planned the attack together with al-Qa'ida". A third defendant, David Jakobsen, was cleared of terror charges but convicted of helping the others acquire explosives. He was sentenced to four months, but released because of time served.

Investigators say the plot was linked to the same al-Qa'ida planners behind thwarted attacks against the New York subway system and a British shopping mall in 2009.

The three men made some admissions but pleaded not guilty to terror conspiracy charges and rejected any links to al-Qa'ida. Davud denied taking orders from al-Qa'ida, saying he was planning a raid against the Chinese embassy in Oslo in revenge for Beijing's oppression of Uighurs, a Muslim minority in western China.

Prosecutors said the cell obtained explosives to attack the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten, whose 12 cartoons of Mohamed sparked protests in Muslim countries in 2006. It is also claimed they planned to murder one of the cartoonists.

AP