Lars Vilks, Swedish artist who wrote Muhammad cartoons, died in accident

Swedish cartoonist Lars Vilks, the target of an attack in Copenhagen in 2015 and who was living under protection after drawing the Prophet Muhammad with the body of a dog in 2007, died this Sunday in a traffic accident in Sweden with the two policemen guarding him.

Swedish police confirmed to AFP the death of the 75-year-old cartoonist and the two police officers in a violent accident in the south of the country, and dismissed the hypothesis of an intentional act.

“It is investigated like any traffic accident. As there are two police officers involved, an investigation has been opened by a particular section of the prosecution, “a spokesman for the local police told AFP.

The accident occurred Sunday afternoon on the E4 motorway in the town of Markaryd (south) when the vehicle in which they were traveling collided with a truck traveling in the opposite direction, Police said in a statement Sunday night. The two vehicles caught fire “after the collision”.

According to the newspaper Express, the police vehicle, which was traveling at high speed, crossed a security barrier for reasons not yet determined before colliding with the truck. The driver of the truck was hospitalized, police said.

“That the person we have protected and two colleagues have died in this tragedy is inconceivable and terribly sad,” said Carina Persson, head of the regional police.

In August 2007, Vilks released a series of drawings representing the prophet Muhammad characterized as a dog. The intention of the artist was to exhibit his works in an exhibition in Sweden, but the organization, for security reasons and for fear of possible Muslim reprisals, decided to withdraw the cartoons. After similar, Vilks’ designs caught the attention of the newspaper Nerikes Allehanda, who used them to illustrate an editorial on self-censorship and religious freedom.

After drawing Muhammad as a dog, Vilks went to live under protection almost without interruption due to numerous threats and attacks from Islamic fundamentalists.

Two years later, in 2009, three US citizens orchestrated a plot to attempt to assassinate Vilks. One of those three, Colleen LaRose (known as “Jihad Jane”), has been accused of recruiting people to end the life of the illustrator. On the day of Jihad Jane’s arrest, Irish police arrested seven people in connection with this alleged plot to assassinate him.

Since the publication of the cartoons, police protection has not been sufficient to prevent attempted attacks against the illustrator. In 2010, Swedish courts condemned two and three years in prison two brothers for setting fire to the artist’s house in the south of this Nordic country. Vilks also suffered physical attacks. In 2010, several Muslim protesters assaulted Vilks during a conference Freedom of expression at Uppsala University.

Later, in 2011, others three people were arrested suspected of having planned an attack against him during the Göteborg Art Biennale (Sweden).

On February 14, 2015, a young Danish man of Palestinian origin opened fire during a debate on freedom of expression in Copenhagen, organized after the deadly attack on Charlie Hebdo in Paris. Vilks and the French ambassador are unharmed, but a 55-year-old Danish filmmaker was killed by the young man of Palestinian origin, who killed a guard at the synagogue in Copenhagen a few hours later.

The assailant died the next day in a clash with Danish police.

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