Dutch MP Geert Wilders' trial on charges of discrimination and inciting hatred resumed in Amsterdam on Monday with both defense and prosecution saying the whole case should be heard again.Last October the trial was abandoned after officials ruled irregularities in the proceedings were potentially prejudicial. New judges have been appointed.
During Monday's procedural hearings, Wilders' lawyer Bram Moszkowicz said the whole process should be started from scratch. The public prosecutors were not in favour of starting again agreed to the defense's wishes.
Wilders faces several charges of
During his first trial, Wilders wanted to call at least 17 witnesses including criminal law professor Theo Roos, some radical clerics and Mohammed Bouyeri - the man who murdered film maker Theo van Gogh. Wilders has called Bouyeri 'living proof' that Islam inspires violence.
On Monday, Moszkowicz said he would again call for all the witnesses to be heard. At the first trial, only a few were approved.
Wilders took the stand at the end of the hearing and said the trial is about a 'much bigger' issue than just him. 'Freedom is being sacrificed because a totalitarian ideology wants to turn it into a sin,' said the MP. 'It is the duty of free people to resist this.'
Last week, judges rejected requests by the plaintiffs for new prosecutors. Several of the groups which have wanted legal action against Wilders are upset that the prosecutors had also called for not guilty verdicts on all charges during the first trial.
| More quotes by Wilders from the same hearing taken from a very biased (anti-Wilders, naturally) article in Deutsche Welle: |
"The lights are going out all over Europe, and it's because of Islam," Wilders told the packed courtroom. "There are no Islamic Mozarts or Bill Gates because they can't exist where there is no creative freedom. An ideology that comes from the desert can only create a desert."