The Danish draftsman Kurt Westergaard, whose cartoon of Mohammed sparked protests in numerous countries and ultimately triggered the bloody attack on the editors of the satirical magazine “Charlie Hebdo” in Paris, is dead.
Westergaard died after a long illness at the age of 86, as his family announced to the Danish newspaper Berlingske on Sunday.
A cartoon drawn by Westergaard showing the Prophet Muhammad with a bomb in his turban in the newspaper «Jyllands-Posten» led to anti-Danish protests and violence in several Muslim-majority countries in 2006 as a series of caricatures.
Was under police protection
In 2012, “Charlie Hebdo” printed the caricature – three years later, two Islamists killed twelve people in an attack on the editorial staff of the satirical magazine.
Westergaard worked for the “Jyllands-Posten” since the mid-1980s. In the last years of his life, the draftsman was under police protection – like several other people who had to do with the printing of the controversial Mohammed caricature. In 2010, police arrested an attacker armed with a knife in Westergaard’s house who wanted to kill the artist. (AFP)
Published: 07/18/2021, 10:22 p.m.
Last updated: 07/18/2021, 10:27 p.m.