Norway upholds conviction in al Qaeda-linked case

OSLO - Norway's Court of Appeals on Thursday upheld the convictions of two men for plotting to blow up a Danish newspaper that printed cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad, in a case prosecutors said was linked to al Qaeda.

Ringleader Mikael Davud, a Norwegian of Chinese Muslim origin, was sentenced to seven years in prison for the plot, and an Iraqi Kurd with Norwegian residence to three-and-a-half years, the court said, reaffirming the lower court's decision.

A third man, acquitted of the main charge but convicted of buying bomb parts, still faces an appeal court.

Extremist violence has grown in the Nordic region in recent years, but the biggest attack was by anti-Muslim Norwegian gunman Anders Behring Breivik, who killed 77 people in a 2011 massacre.

Cartoons published in 2005 by the Jyllands-Posten newspaper led to unrest across the Muslim world, as has a video that mocks Islam and the Prophet Mohammad this month. (continue reading...)