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Preliminary terror charge in Denmark hotel blast
[December 21, 2010]
COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP)
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Lors Doukaev was wounded by the small explosion on Sept. 10 inside a Copenhagen hotel bathroom. Police say he was preparing a letter bomb that exploded accidentally. Doukaev, who is a resident of Belgium, has denied the allegations. Prosecutor Jens Rasmussen told The Associated Press that Doukaev brought to the hotel "a bomb he, for some reason, didn't know how to use or didn't want to use." Instead he transferred the explosives to another device for unknown reasons and that's when the explosion occurred, Rasmussen said. Doukaev was arrested in a park near the hotel shortly after the explosion. The suspect had a map of Aarhus, the city where the Jyllands-Posten newspaper is headquartered, and the daily's address, Rasmussen said. Doukaev has been held on suspicion of preparing an explosion with the intent to cause injuries. The preliminary charge was changed to terrorism after technical investigations in Denmark and Belgium, where he the suspect's computer was seized. If formally charged and convicted, he would face up to life in prison, although such sentences are normally commuted after 16 years in Denmark. The investigation is expected to be completed by February, after which Denmark's top prosecutor will decide whether to file formal charges. Police say Doukaev is believed to have been operating alone and that the case is not linked to the Dec. 11 suicide bombing in neighboring Sweden. Denmark's intelligence service says Denmark remains in the cross-hairs of Islamic terrorists because of Jyllands-Posten's cartoons, which were reprinted by a range of Western papers, sparking violent riots in Muslim countries in 2006. Islamic law generally opposes any depiction of the prophet, even favorable, for fear it could lead to idolatry. |
