A Somali who broke into the home of a Danish cartoonist who caricatured the Prophet Muhammad has been convicted of attempted murder and terrorism

Mohamed Geele, 29, may face a 12-year sentence in prison for his attack on Kurt Westergaard, 75, who avoided injury by sheltering in a panic room. Judge Ingrid Thorsboe told the court that Geele's actions "must be considered as an attempt to instill a heightened level of fear in the population and to destabilize the structures of society". The maximum penalty Geele faced was a life sentence but prosecutors have asked for 12 years, followed by deportation to Somalia. His defense lawyer, Niels Strauss, asked for, at most, a suspended six-year sentence and for his client not to be deported. The convicted man arrived in Denmark in 1995 as a refugee from the country's civil war, and was granted indefinite leave to remain. At some point, however, Geele developed links to Somalia's Islamist movement Al-Shabab, according to Danish intelligence.