10 Mar 2010

Arrests in Ireland over alleged cartoonist death plot

6:19 pm on 10 March 2010

Seven people have been arrested in the Irish Republic over an alleged plot to kill a Swedish cartoonist for depicting the Prophet Muhammad, police say.

The four men and three women are all Muslim, according to media reports, though a police statement did not confirm this, the BBC reports.

Irish media report those in custody were originally refugees from Morocco and Yemen who had gained asylum and were in the Republic of Ireland legally.

In 2007, a group linked to al Qaeda had put a $100,000 bounty on the head of cartoonist Lars Vilks.

His entry in an arts project, depicting the Prophet Muhammad with the body of a dog, had been published by the the Nerikes Allehanda newspaper that year.

Mr Vilks has reportedly been under police protection in Sweden since threats were made against his life.

It came about a year and a half after the notorious Danish cartoon row, when a series of depictions of Muhammad in Denmark's Jyllands-Posten paper caused an uproar in early 2006.

Those cartoons sparked protests from Muslims around the world. Dozens of people were killed in riots.