A man accused of trying to murder a controversial Danish cartoonist has been formally charged. Earlier, the Somali suspect arrived in an ambulance where he was carried into court. The 28-year-old was placed in custody for four weeks, two of which will be in isolation. 
 
Police say they shot and wounded a man with an axe and knife trying to enter Kurt Westergaard’s house late on Friday night.  

The cartoonist, at home with his five-year-old granddaughter, reportedly activated an alarm from a specially designed panic room. The 74-year-old has received a host of death threats and been under close police protection since his caricatures of the Prophet Mohammad were published in a leading Danish newspaper in 2005. 
 
The pictures, one of which showed the Prophet with a bomb in his turban, sparked outrage in the Islamic world. Many Muslims consider any depiction of the founder of Islam as blasphemy and when newspapers reprinted the cartoons in 2006, riots broke out across the Islamic world. At least 50 people were killed and three Danish embassies were attacked. Police say the alleged intruder had close links to Islamist extremists in East Africa and had been under surveillance.

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