A DANISH court last night sentenced four men to 12 years jail after finding them guilty of terrorism over a plot to kill the staff of a newspaper that first published cartoons of the prophet Mohammed.
District Court chief judge Katrine Eriksen said the three Swedes and one Tunisian living in Sweden were unanimously convicted of plotting a shooting spree at the Jyllands-Posten newspaper in Copenhagen.
Sahbi Ben Mohamed Zalouti, Munir Awad and Omar Abdalla Aboelazm -- all Swedish citizens of Tunisian, Lebanese and Moroccan origin, respectively -- and Tunisian Mounir Ben Mohamed Dhahri were found not guilty of a secondary charge of weapons possession due to a technicality, she said.
Prosecutors had charged that the four men had planned to "kill a large number of people" at the offices of the Jyllands-Posten when they were arrested on December 29, 2010.
The daily paper in 2005 published a dozen cartoons of Mohammed that triggered violent and sometimes deadly protests around the world.
Prosecutors had asked that the four, aged 31 to 46, be sentenced to 16 years' jail, four years more than the usual maximum for conspiracy to commit a terrorist act.
Prosecutor Gyrithe Ulrich told Jyllands-Posten yesterday that "this case is different" and "should result in a stricter penalty". "This was not just initial preparations as we have seen in other cases," she said. "In this case we were very close."
Both sides have 14 days to appeal the verdict and sentencing.
"We are very satisfied with the result of 12 years," Ms Ulrich said after the sentencing. She had yet to decide whether to appeal.
A machine-gun with a silencer, a revolver, 108 bullets, 200 plastic handcuff strips and $US20,000 were among the items found in the men's possession when they were arrested.
Danish police, who had been collaborating with their Swedish counterparts and had been wiretapping the men, said they swooped on them just after hearing them say they were going to the Jyllands-Posten office building, which also houses Denmark's newspaper of reference, Politiken.
At a prayer service in Denmark before their arrest, the men were heard on a surveillance tape saying "when you meet the infidels, cut their throats".
The prosecutor claimed that Dhahri, 46, was the mastermind.
The group left Stockholm on December 28, 2010, and headed across to Copenhagen, where three of them were arrested the next morning.
The four all denied the terrorism charge, but Dhahri pleaded guilty to arms possession.
Prosecutors said during the trial that the target of the suspected plot was likely an award ceremony celebrating the "Sporting Newcomer of the Year" at the Jyllands-Posten building.
In addition to a number of sports celebrities, Danish Crown Prince Frederik was present at the ceremony, but prosecutors said the four did not appear to have known he was there and that he was probably not their target.
During the trial, prosecutors also charged that the men had been planning on attacking other random buildings if they were unable to get into the newspaper building.
