People form a human chain during an event organised by Danish Muslims at City Hall Square in Copenhagen.
DPA/Copenhagen
Danish police yesterday arrested a third man suspected of assisting the gunman in deadly shooting attacks this month in Copenhagen. They also searched several locations.
Police declined to comment on Danish media reports that the suspect was the younger brother of the 22-year-old accused gunman.
The suspect will face a remand custody hearing today. Police said prosecutors will seek a closed-door hearing.
A court on Thursday extended by four weeks the remand of two men also suspected of aiding the gunman. The two, who were arrested February 15, have denied charges of being accessories to murder, attempted murder and violence.
They are accused of acquiring weapons used in the February 14-15 shooting deaths of two people, one at a freedom of expression event and another at a synagogue.
The man suspected of carrying out the shootings, Omar el-Hussein, was killed by police outside his apartment building on February 15.
Meanwhile, a Swedish university said it cancelled a meeting where Swedish artist Lars Vilks was invited to speak. Vilks is presumed to have been the target of the February 14 attack in Copenhagen where a Danish film director was killed and three police officers were injured.
Jan Gambring, head of security at Karlstad University in western Sweden, cited “security reasons” for cancelling the March 17 event.
The artist said he regretted the decision, telling Swedish radio “a university should be a place where freedom of expression can be debated”.
Vilks, 68, has received numerous death threats.
Also yesterday, hundreds of people in Copenhagen and the Swedish capital, Stockholm, formed human chains as a show of solidarity with the Jewish community, to promote interfaith harmony and to reject violence.
In Copenhagen, a peace ring was formed on the City Hall square with scores of children participating along with Mayor Frank Jensen. The rally was an initiative by Danish Muslims.
In Stockholm, a peace ring was formed around the main synagogue after prime minister Stefan Lofven spoke.
Lofven said it was “time to take a stand” against anti-Semitism and hatred in Sweden that also targets other minorities, including Muslims, gay men and lesbians, Africans and Roma.
“We refuse to hate people who we share this country with,” he said.
Co-organiser Gul Avci said: “Islam is about protecting and defending each other.”
A moment of silence was also held for Dan Uzan, a volunteer guard shot to death February 15 outside the Copenahgen synagogue.
The initiatives mirror an event held Saturday in the Norwegian capital, Oslo, when Muslim youths organised a human chain of more than 1,000 people around a synagogue.
A radical Islamic preacher has been arrested in Norway after praising last month’s deadly attack on the Charlie Hebdo satirical weekly in Paris, police said.
The Iraqi Kurd preacher known as Mullah Krekar had spoken in a television interview broadcast on Wednesday.
Krekar, who was only freed from prison late last month, was arrested Thursday night on accusations of inciting crime, police said.
“I am obviously happy with what happened in Paris,” the 58-year-old said in the interview with Norwegian channel NRK.
Krekar also responded “yes” when asked if he believed those who carried out the attack were heroes.
When a cartoonist “tramples on our dignity, our principles and our faith, he must die”, he said.
“Those who do not respect 30% of the Earth’s population do not deserve to live.”
Jihadist gunmen killed 12 people, including some of France’s best-known cartoonists, in the January 7 attack on Charlie Hebdo’s Paris office.
Another five people were killed in the three-day spree, including four Jews gunned down at a kosher supermarket and a policewoman.
Krekar was released from prison at the end of January after serving a two-year, 10-month sentence for making threats against prime minister Erna Solberg before she came to office and three Kurds.
Krekar, whose real name is Najmeddine Faraj Ahmad, has been living in Norway since 1991.
He has been at risk of deportation since 2003 after Norwegian authorities ordered him to be expelled as a threat to national security.
While courts have upheld the ruling, Norwegian law bars him from being deported to Iraq, where he risks the death penalty.
Krekar also founded the radical Islamist group Ansar al-Islam, but insists he has not led it since 2002.
The preacher and Ansar al-Islam figure on UN and US lists of terrorist groups or individuals.
