Danish PM says Copenhagen gunman not part of wider cell

Islamic Extremism

People place flower tributes at the synagogue in Copenhagen, Denmark, Monday, Feb. 16, 2015. Denmark’s Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt says she is mourning the two people killed and is vowing to protect freedom of speech along with Denmark’s Jewish community. (AP Photo/Michael Probst)

Two suspected accomplices of the slain gunman behind the deadly attacks in Copenhagen were jailed by a Danish court on Monday jailed. The prime minister said there were no signs of links to a wider terror network.

Danes mourned the two victims of the country’s first fatal terror attacks in 30 years, while some also put flowers at the spot where police killed the gunman.

The suspects arraigned Monday were accused of helping the gunman evade authorities and get rid of a weapon during the manhunt that ended early Sunday when the attacker was killed in a shootout with a SWAT team, said Michael Juul Eriksen, the defense attorney for one of the two suspects.

Prosecutors had asked a judge to place them in four weeks of solitary confinement and the relatively short period of detention — 10 days in custody — suggests the case against the men is “thin,” added Juul Eriksen’s assistant, Anders Rohde.
Rohde was speaking to reporters after a four-hour custody hearing held behind closed doors for the men, who were not named.

Two people were killed in the weekend attacks, including a Danish filmmaker attending a free speech event and a Jewish security guard shot in the head outside a synagogue in Copenhagen. Five police officers were wounded in the attacks. Police said Monday they are in good condition and are expected to be released from hospital this week.

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Authorities have not identified the gunman, but have described him as a 22-year-old Dane with a history of violence and gang connections. Denmark’s security service said he may have been inspired by the terror attacks by Islamic extremists in Paris that killed 17 people.

Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt told reporters Monday that the gunman’s choice of targets suggests the attacks were acts of terrorism.

“We have no indication at this stage that he was part of a cell,” she said. “But we will of course in the coming time evaluate our fight against radicalization. We are already doing a lot.”

Report compiled with information from The Associated Press 


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