Prosecutors at the court in Aarhus, central Denmark, demanded that Mohamed Geele serve 12 years in prison for the New Year's Day axe attack on 75-year-old Kurt Westergaard before then being deported back to his war-torn homeland.
Westergaard, whose cartoon in a Danish newspaper triggered protests by Muslism around the world, said after the verdict that he wanted his attacker to spend his time behind bars reflecting on where his fanaticism had landed him.
"He acted like a terrorist, like a Holy War warrior coming to kill an infidel," Westergaard told AFP.
"He only had one goal: to kill me and to kill the symbol of freedom of expression that I represent. I hope that he will have time to think in prison about where his fanaticism has gotten him."
Guilty of terrorism
The court ruled that not only was Geele guilty of attempted murder but also of attempted terrorism when he broke into Westergaard's home on January 1, 2010, wielding an axe and a knife.
"The court deems that the attempted murder of Kurt Westergaard in his own home, of the man who personifies the Mohammed cartoon affair, must be considered as an attempt to instill a heightened level of fear in the population and to destabilise the structures of society," Judge Ingrid Thorsboe said.
The trial, which has gripped Denmark, had heard testimony from Westergaard of how he took shelter in a specially designed panic room after Geele had burst into his home.
The five-year-old daughter of a friend of Westergaard was alone in the house with the cartoonist at the time of the attack.
Westergaard told the court that Geele rushed in screaming "You must die! You are going to Hell!", forcing the cartoonist to escape "certain death" by rushing into a bathroom-turned-panic-room to call police.
Geele also threatened police with his axe and knife before being shot and wounded twice and placed under arrest.
Trying to 'frighten' cartoonist
The accused however had insisted during the trial he was only trying to frighten the cartoonist.
After the verdict was handed down, prosecutors immediately demanded Geele be sentenced to 12 years in prison and that he then be expelled from Denmark and banned from ever returning.
"In light of the aggravated circumstances, he should be sentenced to 12 years in prison," prosecution assistant Lene Lentz told the court.
Geele's lawyer Niels Strauss however called for "a maximum sentence of six years in prison," pointing out that Westergaard had not been hurt in the attack, and asking that his client not be expelled from the country.
"He has four young children who need a mother and a father," Strauss said.
Geele himself addressed the court, saying his life would be in danger if he was sent back to Somalia.
"I am a very religious Muslim and if I am sent to Somalia due to the terrorism case, I risk being killed," he said.
The court is scheduled to rule on Geele's sentencing at 1100 GMT Friday.
Aarhus is home to the Jyllands-Posten daily that in 2005 first published Westergaard's and other artists' controversial cartoons of the Muslim prophet.
Westergaard has faced numerous death threats since the publication of his drawing, the most controversial of the 12 cartoons of Mohammed which appeared in the Danish daily Jyllands-Posten on September 30, 2005.
The cartoon depicted the prophet wearing a turban shaped like a bomb with a lit fuse.
The drawings sparked deadly protests across the Islamic world in early 2006.
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