NRC HANDELSBLAD: Geert Wilders was “completely surprised” when he heard on Wednesday that the appeals court of Amsterdam ruled he shall be prosecuted for hate speech and inciting discrimination. Last year the public prosecutor had decided not to try the controversial Dutch member of parliament for his remarks about Islam. In an interview with NRC Handelsblad Wilders says he is "shaken, but also very angry and ready to fight."
"The public prosecutor agreed with me, that I can say what I said. The attorney general at the appeals court has argued the same. I never thought that things would turn out this way," Wilders says. Because of the appeals court ruling, the public prosecutor is forced to prosecute Wilders for statements such as "ban the Koran" and "the core of the problem is fascist Islam", statements Wilders has made in the media and his own film Fitna. >>> By Herman Staal | Friday, January 23, 2009
NRC HANDELSBLAD – Editorial: Wilders' Never-ending Story
The appeals court in Amsterdam on Thursday issued a ruling which will echo for years and have major political implications. The court takes a hard line against the radical politician Geert Wilders and issued an extensively outlined order to charge Wilders with hate speech and inciting discrimination. That a lower court is now at liberty to give a dissenting verdict, after the appeals court has already ruled in such strong wording, is an illusion. The limits on freedom of speech for politicians have hereby been set.
So for years to come, the courtroom will be the most important arena of debate about Muslims in the Netherlands. The focus will be on the criminal nature of Wilders' statements first, and only second on their validity - or lack thereof. That is not anything to look forward to. Further escalation and polarisation are on the horizon.
NRC Handelsblad has stated before that the position of Muslims in the Netherlands is not so weak that the criminal justice system needs to protect them against Wilders. The open political debate offers enough space to put him in his place. The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg has approved curtailing offensive political statements in several European member states. But only if sanctions against such statements are proportional - usually very limited. If the Dutch penal code is to come into play here at any point, sanctions can therefor only be restricted. Otherwise they are deemed by Strasbourg to be illegal. >>> Editorial, NRC Handelsblad | Saturday, January 24, 2009
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