Muslim men charged in relation to death threats against cartoonist

TWO Muslim men were brought before a special sitting of Waterford District Court last night in relation to an ongoing probe into alleged death threats against a Swedish artist who depicted the Prophet Mohammed with the body of a dog.

Algerian Ali Charafe Damache and Abdul-Salam Mansour Al-Jehani from Libya were brought before a special late night court sitting. Damache was charged with sending a menacing text message, while Al-Jehani was charged with an immigration offence.

Damache, whose address was given as John Collins House, High Street, Waterford, was charged with sending a message of a menacing nature on a phone on January 9.

The 44-year-old, who has been living in Ireland for about 10 years, swore on the Koran before taking the stand in an attempt to secure bail. He also chanted Muslim slogans as he was brought into court.

Al-Jehani, aged 32, of Johnstown, Waterford, was charged with an immigration offence after allegedly giving a false name. He is accused of presenting false documentation under the Immigration Act 2004. Both men were remanded in custody to appear next week at Waterford Court.

The men were arrested last week over an international conspiracy to kill Lars Vilks, whose depictions of the Muslim prophet were printed in a newspaper in Sweden in 2007.

A third man was released by gardaí and a file is being prepared for the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP). The third, a Croatian, was among seven people arrested last Tuesday by a two-pronged Garda operation in Cork and Waterford.

Mr Vilks, whose cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed were printed in the Swedish Nerikes Allehanda newspaper in August 2007, was under threat of death from Iraqi members of al-Qaida. They put a $100,000 (€74,000) bounty on the cartoonist’s head, forcing him into police protection. Last week, Vilks said he has no intention of doing Jesus cartoons.

Asked if he feared being killed by extremists, he replied: “No. It seems that these people are low-tech.”