Danish cartoonist says he escaped‘certain death’

AARHUS, Denmark - A cartoonist who caricatured the Prophet Mohammed told a Danish court Thursday he narrowly escaped“certain death” when an axe-wielding Somali attacker broke into his home last year.

“He was chopping so violently with his axe on the bathroom door that it began to vibrate... I thought I was going to die,” Kurt Westergaard, 75, testified on the second day of the trial of his attacker, Mohamed Geele, in a court in Aarhus, central Denmark.

“It would have been certain death if he had managed to break it (the door) down,” he said, rejecting the 29-year-old Somali’s testimony on Wednesday that he had only wanted to “frighten” the cartoonist.

On the night of January 1, 2010, Mr. Geele had broken into Westergaard’s home in Visby, near Aarhus, screaming, according to the cartoonist’s testimony: “You must die! You are going to Hell!”

Mr. Westergaard, who was at home with the five-year-old daughter of a friend, rushed into a bathroom-turned-panic-room and called police.

When officers arrived, Mr. Geele, who is suspected of having links to the Somali Islamist movement Al-Shebab, came out wielding his axe and a knife. He was shot twice and placed under arrest.

Mr. Westergaard described his attacker as a“terrorist,” a “young, crazy religious man,” and a “soldier of the holy war.”

His attacker could face life in prison if found guilty on all of the numerous charges against him, which include attempted terrorism and attempted murder.

Mr. Geele had said he simply“wanted to frighten him but not to kill” Mr. Westergaard, adding he merely wanted the cartoonist to stop “dirtying” the prophet and Muslims like himself.

Mr. Westergaard -- the subject of numerous death threats since his drawing of the Prophet Mohammed wearing a turban shaped like a bomb with a lit fuse was published -- rejected his attacker’s explanation.

“He just wanted to frighten me?” he said. “That is as believable as a child’s practical joke.”

Police officer Christian Worner, who had shot Mr. Geele, also took the stand and said the attacker’s attitude led him to think he was prepared to die at the scene.

“He chose confrontation with police instead of running away,” said the policeman, adding that once Mr. Geele was on the ground, he told the officer he was “an idiot who couldn’t aim” and yelled “Allah Akbar” (God is great.)

Prosecutor Kristen Dryman had hinted Wednesday that Mr. Geele performed a“ritual” often carried out by those who want to die as martyrs before travelling to Westergaard’s house.

Mr. Geele had rejected that hypothesis, insisting that if“I put on perfume and shave parts of my body, it is for hygienic reasons in line with Islam.”

He added the theory he wanted to die as a martyr at the hands of police made“no sense.”

Five-year-old Stephanie, the daughter of Mr. Westergaard’s friend who was with the caricaturist when he was attacked, also testified via video on Thursday.

Mr. Geele“looked at me and did not do anything to me. He was very angry against the old man. He left when he heard the police sirens,” she said.

Mr. Westergaard had left Stephanie in the living room when he darted into the bathroom-turned-panic-room, explaining on Thursday he knew the attacker was angry only with him.

The caricaturist has faced numerous death threats since the publication of his drawing, the most controversial of the 12 cartoons of Mohammed which appeared in the Danish daily Jyllands-Posten on September 30, 2005.

The drawings sparked angry and even deadly protests across the Islamic world in early 2006.

Mr. Geele’s trial is set to last for nine days and the verdict is expected around the first week of February.

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