–The artist Lars Vilks died together with two police officers when the car they were in collided with a truck in Sweden on Sunday, the cohabitant confirms to Dagens Nyheter.
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The police officers worked in the bodyguard service of the Swedish police, and the three were together in a civilian police car when the accident happened on the E4 outside Markaryd in Småland on Sunday afternoon.
The Swedish artist Lars Vilks is best known for a drawing in which in 2007, two years after the so-called caricature dispute, he placed the head of the Prophet Muhammad on a dog, an animal that according to Islam is unclean.
He became an object of hatred for Muslims all over the world and has since lived with police protection.
The Swedish Minister of Culture Amanda Lind calls the accident “extremely tragic”.
– Lars Vilks has since 2010 been forced to live in freedom because he used the freedom of expression and his artistic freedom. So incredibly sad that it ends this way, she writes Twitter.
Al-Qaida
In Pakistan, puppets depicting the artist and Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt were burned by angry protesters. Several Islamic countries officially protested to Sweden against the drawing.
Al-Qaeda called this a blasphemy and promised a $ 100,000 reward to anyone who killed him. An al-Qaeda leader in Iraq, Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, also promised a bounty to the assassin of editor Ulf Johansson, and he threatened Swedish companies such as Ikea and Volvo.
Vilks is also known for its sculpture of driftwood, Nimis, which stands in the nature reserve Kullaberg in northwestern Scania. The artwork was started in 1980 and was disputed when the artist set it up without a building permit. The work has not yet been completed.
Vilks was from 1997 to 2003 professor of art theory at the Bergen Academy of the Arts.
Terror
In 2015, Vilks was subjected to a terrorist attack in Copenhagen, then as a participant in a debate meeting on art, blasphemy and freedom of expression. Vilks escaped unharmed from the attack, but the Danish documentary filmmaker Finn Nørgaard was shot and killed and three policemen were injured.
In the summer of 2007, he was to exhibit pen drawings of the Islamic prophet Muhammad as a dog. The drawings were rejected, but one of them was published in the newspaper Nerikes Allehanda as an illustration of a column on freedom of expression.
This was met with strong reactions, and the drawing was refused to be shown elsewhere.
Heavy fire
– It is with horror and great sadness that I receive the message that our two colleagues and the person we protected, died this afternoon, says National Police Chief Anders Thornberg.
In connection with the collision, both vehicles began to burn heavily. It is still unclear how the accident happened, but there is currently no indication that anyone else is involved. The driver of the truck has been taken to hospital and is being treated there.
– Defended our democracy
Party leader for the Center Party, Annie Löof, calls it “a terrible tragedy”
– I am thinking of the families of the deceased, close relatives, friends and colleagues. Two police officers who never return home after work, died in the work of defending our democracy, she writes on Twitter
Jimmie Åkesson, leader of the Sweden Democrats, writes on Facebook that he is devastated by the death
– It is with great sadness that tonight I received the news that the artist and freedom of expression activist Lars Vilks, as well as two police officers, have died in a tragic car accident, he writes.
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