
Four men aged between 21 and 31 are accused of helping the gunman behind the twin attacks on a Copenhagen synagogue and at a culture centre last year that left two people dead.
On Thursday, a week after the trial got under way, one of them told the court in the Danish capital that the Swedish cartoonist Lars Vilks, who survived the shooting at the free speech gathering, had been the intended target.
“It wasn’t the one who was supposed to die. It was the Mohammed cartoonist,” said Bhostan Khan Hussein.
According to Danish media, it is the first time the suspect has given his version of what happened, having previously refused to speak to police after he was first detained.
If found guilty, they all risk a term of life imprisonment, which in Denmark means they would be entitled to a pardoning hearing after 12 years.
After lifting a ban on disclosing their identities, the court named the group last week as Liban Ahmed Saleban Elmi, 20, Ibrahim Khalil Abbas, 23, and Mahmoud Rabea, 31, as well as Bhostan Khan Hussein, who is 26.
.“It wasn’t the one who was supposed to die. It was the Mohammed cartoonist,” said Bhostan Khan Hussein.”
IT wasn’t the one? Not ‘he’ or ‘she’ but ‘it’? That says a lot. What does it take to flip the switch in the muslim mind so that non-muslims become objects?