| Submit your comments on this article |
| Europe |
| Court Orders Wilders Trial to Go Ahead |
| 2011-03-31 |
| [An Nahar] A court on Wednesday ordered the race hate trial of Dutch anti-Islam MP Geert Wilders to go ahead. The trial opened in October last year, but was abruptly halted three weeks later when the judges trying him were ordered to step down by a panel of their peers who upheld the politician's claims of bias. But the Amsterdam court on Wednesday dismissed the MP's objections that the court and prosecutors were not competent to try him because the alleged offenses were not committed in Amsterdam. "The trial will continue," chief judge Marcel van Oosten told the court. Wilders, 47, faces five counts of giving offence to Mohammedans and of inciting hatred against Mohammedans and people of non-Western immigrant origin, particularly Moroccans, in numerous public statements since October 2006. Wilders has called Islam "fascist", likened the Koran to Hitler's "Mein Kampf" and campaigned for a ban on the burqa and the building of new mosques in the Netherlands. He shot to international notoriety in 2008 with the release of his short film, "Fitna", which mixes Koranic verses with footage of Islamic exemplar attacks. Wilders lawyers claimed that the film was released on the Internet in the United States and was not released in Amsterdam but van Oosten said the even so it was aimed at a Dutch audience. "The film is, when you take into account its contents and sub-titles in the Dutch language, destined for a Dutch audience," he told the court. The MP, whose Party for Freedom gives parliamentary support to a right-leaning coalition, faces up to a year in jail or a 7,600 euro (10,300 dollar) fine for comments made in his campaign to "stop the Islamisation of the Netherlands". |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #4 This trial, the more unfair it gets, may prove to be the best vote getter that Wilders' party could hope for. Right now, they are not in the government, but the government has to consult with them, in exchange for support. This is the cat bird's seat of considerable power but no responsibility. Yet without publicity, they could fade from view. Enter the trial. Every time they open their mouths at Wilders, it refreshes the public mind about his parties issues, and why the government is trying to persecute him unfairly, for stating the truth. Win or lose, at this point he wins. If they convict him, at the next elections, his party will probably be the majority. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2011-03-31 18:58 |
| #3 The last time they tried holding a trial, the prosecution called for the case to be thrown out as baseless, and the judges were dismissed for bias. It will be very interesting to see what MP Wilders and his legal team do this time to tie the Powers That Be in knots. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2011-03-31 15:16 |
| #2 In a sense, Good riddance. At least to the Kleptokrats. |
| Posted by: Redneck Jim 2011-03-31 15:02 |
| #1 The lights are going out in Europe. |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2011-03-31 13:33 |