Two charged over Copenhagen attacks

TWO men have been charged by Danish police with aiding the man suspected of carrying out the weekend attacks in Copenhagen in which two people were killed.

The 22-year-old Danish-born man suspected of carrying out the attacks was shot dead by police hours after he had killed one man at a café and another in a later attack on a synagogue. The gunman has been named by local media as Omar Abdel Hamid el-Hussein, who has a history of assault and weapons offences.

“The two men are charged with helping through advice and deeds the perpetrator in relation to the shootings at Krudttoenden and in Krystalgade,” said a Danish police statement this Monday (February 16).

The defence lawyer for one of the detainees said they were accused of helping the gunman evade the authorities and disposing of a weapon, before he was killed in a shootout with police.

Finn Norgaard, aged 55, was killed during an attack on a café hosting a debate on freedom of speech. Lars Vilks, a Swedish artist who drew the prophet Muhammad in a cartoon in 2007 and whose life has been under threat ever since, was in attendance at the event.

In the early hours of Sunday morning, Dan Uzan, aged 37, a Jewish security guard, was shot dead while manning the door of a bar mitzvah party. The suspected killer was shot by police a few hours later in the Norrebro district of the city. Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt called the killings ‘a cynical act of terror’. “We have tried the ugly taste of fear and powerlessness which terror hopes to create,” she said. “We will defend our democracy and we will defend Denmark at any time.”