A Danish court on Friday jailed a Somali for nine years and told him that he would then be kicked back to his homeland for trying to butcher a cartoonist who caricatured the Holy Prophet Mohammed (PBUH). A day after Mohamed Geele was found guilty of attempted murder and terrorism for a New Year's Day axe attack last year, the court in the central Danish city of Aarhus disregarded his plea to be spared expulsion back to war-torn Somalia after his time behind bars.
"Mohamed Geele is sentenced to nine years in prison and expulsion from Denmark for life," Ingrid Thorsboe, who headed the case's three-judge team, told the court. Geele's legal team immediately announced that they would appeal. A six-member jury at the district court had convicted Geele, 29, on Thursday at the end of a trial which had gripped Denmark.