Danish police charge bomber with terrorism

Danish police charged a man who set off a small blast at a hotel in the Danish capital on Sept 10 with terrorism and attempted murder on Tuesday.  

The man, a 24-year-old ethnic Chechen who lives in Belgium called Lors Doukaev, was the only one injured in the blast in a hotel toilet.   

He was initially charged with carrying out an explosion which put peoples' lives in danger, but police said soon after the blast that he had most likely planned to send a letter bomb to Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten.    

"The extension of the charges are based on results from the investigation in Denmark and Belgium, particularly the technical investigation and investigation of the charged man's computer which has been confiscated in Belgium," a police statement said.

The Danish Security and Intelligence Service (PET) had said the circumstances of the small explosion "pointed towards a failed terror attack".                                           

Doukaev has pleaded not guilty to both sets of charges.

Jyllands-Posten's publication in 2005 of cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad sparked protests in the Middle East, Africa and Asia in which at least 50 people died and Danish embassies were torched.                                           

Last year a plot to attack the newspaper was discovered, and in January the creator of the most controversial cartoon escaped an axe attack at his home by a man with al-Qaeda links.