Gunman Omar El-Hussein opened fire on February 14, 2015 outside a cultural centre where the speakers included Swedish artist Lars Vilks, a target of Islamic extremists since he portrayed the Prophet Mohammed as a dog in 2007.

Filmmaker Finn Nørgaard, 55, died and four police officers were injured.

Later that night, El-Hussein fired six shots outside the city’s main synagogue, killing security guard Dan Uzan, 37, and injuring two more policemen.

In court on Friday, 26-year-old defendant Bhostan Khan Hossein said that the two men killed were “innocent” victims but that Vilks should have been killed in the attack.

“Those who died were innocent. The cartoonist deserved to die,” he said in a preliminary statement that was read in court on Friday, according to TV2.

Testifying in front of the court, Hossein stuck by his words and said that anyone who insults the Prophet Mohammed deserves to be killed.

“They deserve to die, yeah. I wouldn’t care about him [Vilks, ed.] if he died. I wouldn’t feel bad,” he said.

Friday’s court action also saw an outburst from Hossein’s fellow defendant, 31-year-old Mahmoud Rabae. Judge Marianne Madsen warned Rabae several times about speaking out of turn in the courtroom and it provoked a violent reaction from the defendant.

“You should suck my fucking circumcised dick. Nazi whore,” he said.

The defendant was then removed from the courtroom and placed in an adjacent room where he could hear the proceedings but not disturb them.