An Iraqi Kurd already in custody in Norway on suspicion of planning bombings has admitted plotting an attack on a Danish daily which published caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed, police said today.
"One of the suspects was questioned and, from what he said we extracted a confession about terror attack plans," Siv Alsen, a spokeswoman for Norwegian security police PST, told AFP.
"Based on his declarations, everything indicates that the target was the Jyllands-Posten newspaper in Denmark," she added, referring to the daily that published 12 controversial cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed in September 2005, sparking outrage and protests across the Muslim world.
The confession came from Shawan Sadek Saeed Bujak, Alsen said.
The 37-year-old Iraqi Kurd, who holds a Norwegian residency permit, was arrested in Germany on July 8 where he had been on holiday with his family.
His two suspected accomplices, Mikael Davud, a 39-year-old ethnic Uighur from China who is a Norwegian citizen, and David Jakobsen, a 31-year-old Uzbek with a legal residence permit in Norway, were arrested the same day near Oslo.
The three men, who have since been held in protective custody, are suspected of preparing one or several attacks on targets that police until now believed were in Norway.
According to police, the three had attempted to lay their hands on the necessary ingredients to produce explosives, including hydrogen peroxide.
But the PST swapped a key component of the planned explosives, rendering them harmless.
"I can confirm that our client has been questioned in my presence. He has explained the role he played," one of Bujak's two lawyers, Brynjar Meling, told the VG daily.
"What I can say is that he has rejected allegations that he is part of a terror cell. He also says he is not aware of any connections with Al-Qaeda," added Meling, who could not immediately be reached for comment.
Mikael Davud, the suspected mastermind of the group, and David Jakobsen were now being questioned, Alsen said.
Some media have reported that Davud participated in an Al Qaeda training camp in Pakistan and had been in contact with a certain "Ahmad," one of the terror group's leaders.
Jyllands-Posten has repeatedly been targeted by threats and on September 10, Danish police arrested a man following an explosion at a Copenhagen hotel that turned out to come from a letter bomb, which police said had most likely been destined to the newspaper.