Denmark drops cartoon murder plot charges

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COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - Danish prosecutors on Wednesday dropped charges against a Moroccan-born man accused of plotting to murder one of 12 cartoonists whose drawings of the Prophet Mohammad caused worldwide uproar in 2006.

"Even though there is information of a connection betweenthe 40-year-old and the planners of the plot to murder KurtWestergaard, it is not possible to submit sufficient evidencein court that he took part in the planning," prosecutorElsemette Casoe said, according to Danish news agency Ritzau.

Westergaard, 73, drew the cartoon that caused mostcontroversy, depicting the founder of Islam with a bomb in histurban. He told Ritzau he accepted the prosecutor's decisionbut wanted Denmark to deport two other suspects still indetention who are fighting deportation to their native Tunisia.

"These threats have seriously violated my human rights,"said Westergaard, who has been living under the protection ofDenmark's Security and Intelligence Service. "I'm a supporterof the Danish judicial system. But I think they should havebeen deported (immediately). It would have been a relief forme."

The cartoons were reprinted outside Denmark, provokingoutrage among Muslims. Three Danish embassies were attacked andat least 50 people were killed in rioting in the Middle East,Africa and Asia.

Last month, al Qaeda took responsibility for a suicideattack on Denmark's embassy in Pakistan that killed at leastsix people and wounded 20, in revenge for the cartoons.

(Reporting by Gelu Sulugiuc; edited by Douglas Hamilton)