Danish court convicts two of planning bomb attack

COPENHAGEN Oct 21 (Reuters) - Two Danish Muslim men were convicted by a Copenhagen court on Tuesday of producing explosives in an apartment with the intent of carrying out a bomb attack.

Danish police arrested the 22-year-old men, who are of Pakistani and Afghan origin, during a raid against several addresses in the Danish capital in September 2007. Six other individuals detained were subsequently released.

The jury found the two men were in possession of a large amount of material "concerning terror acts of various kinds," the court said in a statement.

The court also said that one of the men has visited Pakistan in 2007 including two villages that are known strongholds for al Qaeda and close to its training camps.

Security experts have said Denmark is a target for militants because of its military involvement in Afghanistan and a crisis sparked in 2006 after cartoons lampooning the Prophet Mohammad were published in a Danish newspaper.

Prosecutors said video surveillance from one of the defendants' apartments showed the men testing explosive material and that they managed to produce Acetone peroxide or TATP, a high explosive.

Prosecutors have not named the target of the planned attack.

The two men had pleaded not guilty and claimed the explosives were to be used for fireworks.

Sentencing is scheduled for Thursday Oct. 23. The men face a maximum term of life in prison, although that sentence is seldom handed down in Denmark. (Reporting by Kim McLaughlin; Editing by Matthew Jones)