The court in the city of Aarhus sentenced Muhudiin Mohamed Geele to be expelled from Denmark and banned from the country for life after serving his sentence, Danish media reported.
Geele, 29, who broke into the home of cartoonist Kurt Westergaard with an axe on New Year’s Day last year, was convicted on Thursday of an attempted act of terrorism and attempted manslaughter.
The prosecutor had asked for a 12-year sentence, but the defense lawyer had argued for between five and six years and is expected to lodge an appeal in a higher court.
Geele had pleaded not guilty to the terror and manslaughter charges, and said he had entered the cartoonist’s home intending only to frighten him.
He was acquitted of another manslaughter charge, brought because he threw his axe at a police officer who arrived to arrest him, but was convicted of assaulting the officer.
Westergaard’s drawing of the Prophet with a turban resembling a bomb was one of a dozen cartoons lampooning Islam published by the Danish daily Jyllands-Posten, which led to violent protests in 2006 and threats to cartoonists, journalists and the newspaper.
Most Muslims consider any depiction of the founder of Islam offensive, and protests resulted in at least 50 deaths.
Westergaard’s cartoon was the one that attracted the most attention. He has lived for years under police protection following numerous threats against him and the newspaper.
On Dec. 29, Danish and Swedish police arrested five men suspected of plotting a “Mumbai-style” attack to kill as many people as possible at the Copenhagen building that houses the newspaper.
Three of the men remain in custody in Denmark and one in Sweden, facing charges of planning an act of terrorism. The fifth man was later released.
