Cartoon protester denies calling for murder

A man today denied calling for murder at a demonstration by Muslims following the publication of cartoons depicting the prophet Mohammed.

Umran Javed, 27, said: “Bomb, bomb, Denmark; Bomb, bomb USA” during a protest outside the Danish embassy in London in February, last year.

The prosecution says he was plainly calling for murder and stirring up race hate as he addressed the crown using a loudhailer.

The protest was one of many across the world following the publication of cartoons in Denmark and their reproduction in European countries, excluding the UK.

Javed, of Washwood Heath Road, Birmingham, denies charges of soliciting murder and stirring up racial hatred.

He told the Old Bailey: “I regret saying these things. I understand the implications they have but they were just slogans, sound bites. I did not want to see Denmark and the USA being bombed.”

Javed, a married man with a young child, said he had been disappointed with himself but had got caught up in the emotion of the moment.

“Never, ever did I have in my mind to threaten anybody, any nationality. Never did I intend to discriminate against any particular race.”