COPENHAGEN, Denmark: An Iraqi asylum seeker accused of plotting a shooting attack on the Copenhagen office of a newspaper that published cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) was freed Thursday due to an apparent lack of evidence. Three other suspects, who are residents in Sweden, were ordered to remain in custody for four weeks by a Danish court. The group had been planning a shooting spree in the building where the Jyllands-Posten newspaper has its Copenhagen newsdesk, officials said. Jakob Scharf, head of the Danish Security and Intelligence Service Scharf, described some of the suspects as “militant Islamists with relations to international terror networks.” He said more arrests were possible. Scharf said the assault was to have been carried out sometime before this weekend, and could have been similar to the 2008 terrorist attack in Mumbai, India, that left 166 people dead. In Sweden, police arrested Wednesday a 37-year-old Swedish citizen of Tunisian origin living in Sweden, suspected of being linked to the plot. He was to face a custody hearing later Thursday in Stockholm. A Danish intelligence official said that the released Iraqi man arrested in Denmark remains a suspect. The official gave no other details and spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the press. The Iraqi suspect's younger brother said he had been released and was at home with his parents. “My brother is innocent. He is being called a terrorist because he is a devout Muslim,” said Farooq Muhammed Salman. “I know that my brother has nothing to do with this.” Salman said his brother, who suffers from various ailments, rarely leaves the apartment where he lives with his parents. Under a court order, none of the suspects held in Denmark can be named. Police said they were Swedish residents- a 44-year-old Tunisian, a 29-year-old Lebanese-born man and a 30-year-old whose national origin was not released.
