DENMARK-SHOOTING/VILKS FILE One dead after shootout at Danish meeting with controversial artist Vilks

Record ID: 324460

  • Title: DENMARK-SHOOTING/VILKS FILE One dead after shootout at Danish meeting with controversial artist Vilks
  • Date: 15th February 2015
  • Summary: STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN (FILE - JANUARY 6, 2014) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF EXTERIOR OF SWEDISH ARTIST, LARS VILKS'S, HOME (SOUNDBITE) (English) SWEDISH ARTIST, LARS VILKS, SAYING: "It's a long story, and I have been following the reports and many times it's been coming up to a verdict and no-one (verdict) has so far appeared" VARIOUS OF VILKS AT WORK (SOUNDBITE) (English) SWEDISH ARTIST, LARS VILKS, SAYING: "I think they actually should let her loose and give her some therapy because I think that she's in a bad state, and actually this is a psychological case, in the first run." VARIOUS OF VILKS AT WORK (SOUNDBITE) (English) SWEDISH ARTIST, LARS VILKS, SAYING: "It's been very difficult to make exhibitions because people are scared and we come in to also other things, like I've been accused of racism and things like that. Last year I had the possibility to make exhibitions in a Swedish gallery. I've been working with that and these exhibitions have been very successful. So I' m quite optimistic of the future. I hope that this year, it will be possible for the first time, to show the original drawings that started all this fuss in 2007." VILKS SITTING DOWN AT DESK VARIOUS OF VILKS WORKING ON COMPUTER (SOUNDBITE) (English) SWEDISH ARTIST, LARS VILKS, SAYING: "I've been working in different ways to use this theme and the best thing to get out of it is to create some sort of inflation - you do it over and over again until everyone is tired." VARIOUS OF VILKS AND HIS WORK (SOUNDBITE) (English) SWEDISH ARTIST, LARS VILKS, SAYING: "Probably they will appeal again, so I think there will be more of this. In one way it is kind of over. They have found the roots of this matter so it's just the formalities that is left." VILKS WORKING ON COMPUTER MALMO, SWEDEN (FILE - DECEMBER 12, 2010) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF VILKS PHOTOGRAPHING ARTWORKS STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN (FILE - MARCH 10, 2010) (REUTERS) (MUTE) NEWSPAPER HEADLINES NEWSPAPER ARTICLE WITH PICTURE OF VILKS HOLDING AXE VILKS TALKING / VILKS'S HANDS VILKS' EYES (SOUNDBITE) (English) SWEDISH ARTIST, LARS VILKS, SAYING: "This should be a small thing really. To insult a religion. You cannot make exceptions for religion, I mean that's the point. This should be the same rules as we have for Christianity or the Jewish religion or whatsoever. That we should make an exception - Islam is not more holy than the other ones" VILKS' HANDS
  • Embargoed: 2nd March 2015 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Sweden
  • Country: Sweden
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVAA38D0O7N8V5BY5ODNEZ162LU9
  • Story Text: One civilian was killed and three police were wounded on Saturday (February 14), in shooting at a public meeting in the Danish capital Copenhagen attended by the controversial Swedish artist Lars Vilks, police and the Danish Ritzau news agency reported.
    Danish police confirmed one civilian had been killed in a shooting and said the suspects had fled in a car.
    Ritzau said both Vilks and the French ambassador, who was also attending, were both unharmed, but that three police had been wounded.
    The gathering was billed as a debate on art and blasphemy.
    Just over a month ago, 17 people were killed in France in three days of violence that began when two Islamist gunmen burst into the Paris offices of the satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo, opening fire in revenge for its publication of satirical images of the Prophet Mohammad.
    Vilks stirred controversy in 2007 with published drawings depicting Mohammad as a dog which sparked threats from Islamist militant groups.
    He has received numerous death threats and has lived under constant protection by the Swedish police since 2010.
    Two years ago, an American woman who called herself Jihad Jane was sentenced to 10 years in prison for plotting to kill him.
    French President Francois Hollande said Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve would go to Copenhagen as soon as possible.
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