The 28-year-old Somali who attacked the Danish cartoonist Kurt Westergaard was recently in prison for seven weeks in Kenya.

The formal reason for his incarceration was that a Kenyan police checkpoint found him without travel documents.

At the time of his arrest, Kenyan police was investigating reports of plans to carry out a terrorist attack against, among others, the American Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who was due in the country.

The Kenyan media has linked the man’s arrest with the terrorist plans, a link that intelligence sources have confirmed. The Danish Security and Intelligence Service has previously said in a release that the man ‘is suspected of having been involved in terror-related activities during his time in East Africa’.

In Kenya, Denmark’s Ambassador Bo Jensen has declined to confirm or deny Politiken’s information that the Danish-Somali who has now been remanded in custody in the Westergaard case, is identical with the man who was detained in Kenya.

Kurt  Westergaard's house the morning after the attack.

But he says that it is highly unusual to be detained in prison for seven weeks as a result of problems with a passport.

“Danes seldom get into such major problems because they have lost their passport,” Jensen says, adding that the embassy had been in contact with the man three days after he was detained.

He added that although the embassy had offered to provide a new passport, Kenyan authorities said they found it strange he had no passport and wanted to investigate further.

The man was eventually released and put on a plane for Denmark carrying temporary travel documents but remains under charge in Kenya for not having his identity papers.

Ambassador Jensen says the embassy has asked for information on whether any Danes were involved in terrorism plans relating to Clinton.

“We simply don’t get any answers,” he said.