RADIO NETHERLANDS WORLWIDE: The Public Prosecutor's Office will now definitely go ahead with the prosecution of the populist MP Geert Wilders for inciting hatred and discrimination. The Supreme Court refused to consider an appeal from Mr Wilders' lawyer Bram Moszkowicz to get the case dropped. This was the last avenue of appeal.
Initially the Public Prosecutor had no intention of putting Mr Wilders on trial, until an Amsterdam court responded to complaints lodged by prominent lawyer Gerard Spong and others by ruling that Mr Wilders had exceeded his parliamentary privilege and committed punishable offences.
He will be charged with inciting hatred and discrimination against Muslims, particularly by comparing the Qur'an with Hitler's Mein Kampf and Islam with fascism.
On the website of his Freedom Party, Mr Wilders said, "It is a political trial. I am being prosecuted for saying about Islam what millions of Dutch people think. Freedom of speech is in danger of being sacrificed on the altar of Islam." Justice Minister Ernst Hirsch Ballin commented, "We do not have political trials in the Netherlands." [Source: RNW] | Wednesday, May 20, 2009
