Seven held in Ireland over Swedish cartoonist 'plot'

DUBLIN — Irish police arrested seven Muslims suspected of conspiracy to murder Tuesday over an alleged plot to kill a Swedish cartoonist who drew the Prophet Mohammed with the body of a dog, they said.

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Police confirmed press reports that they were Muslims arrested over an alleged plot to assassinate Swedish cartoonist Lars Vilks, who has a 100,000-dollar (74,000-euro) bounty on his head from an Al-Qaeda-linked group.

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The seven people arrested range in age from mid 20s to late 40s, Irish police said. State broadcaster RTE reported that they were originally from Morocco and Yemen, but were all legally in Ireland.

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Vilks began receiving death threats after his cartoon depicting the Prophet Mohammed as a dog appeared in Swedish newspaper Nerikes Allehanda on August 18, 2007, alongside an editorial on freedom of expression and religion.