Cartoonist plot police free couple
Gardai arrested seven people over an alleged plot to kill Swedish artist Lars Vilks
Friday March 12 2010
Two of seven Muslims detained in Ireland over a suspected plot to assassinate a Swedish cartoonist have been released from custody.
Gardai confirmed the man and woman, a married couple, were freed after three and a half days of questioning.
Three men and two women are still detained in the south east of the country over an alleged international conspiracy to murder Lars Vilks, who controversially depicted the Prophet Mohammed with the body of a dog.
Anti-terrorist units carried out a series of raids on Tuesday morning over a plot allegedly masterminded by a self-styled "Jihad Jane".
The Libyan couple, who live in the outskirts of Ballincollig in Co Cork, had been held in Dungarvan Garda Station in Co Waterford.
A Garda spokesman said: "A file will be prepared for the Director Of Public Prosecutions." The other suspects included a second Libyan man, one Algerian man, a Palestinian woman, a woman from the US and a Croatian man.
All had their periods of detention extended at closed court hearings during the week.
Mr Vilks, whose cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed with the body of a dog were printed in the Swedish Nerikes Allehanda newspaper in August 2007, has been under threat of death from Iraqi members of the Islamic terrorist group al Qaida. They put a 100,000 US dollar (74,000 euro) bounty on the cartoonist's head, forcing him into police protection in an isolated area of Sweden.
US caretaker Colleen LaRose, who styled herself Jihad Jane in a YouTube video, has been charged with plotting his murder bid.
If convicted, LaRose faces a potential sentence of life in prison and a one million dollar fine.
