Dutch MP Acquitted in 'Hate' Trial
Dutch politician Geert Wilders has been cleared of "hate speech" charges.

A court in Amsterdam said that Wilders' statements were "rude and condescending" but not a criminal offence according to Dutch law.

The case has reopened discussions over freedom of speech in the Netherlands.

Al Jazeera's Tania Page reports from Amsterdam, the Netherlands.



My comment:

This video is a perfect example of biassed reporting. That Geert Wilders was acquitted yesterday is cause for celebration, not criticism: it marks the triumph of freedom over enslavement, the triumph of freedom of speech over oppression, the triumph of the enlightenment of the West over the darkness of the East.

Millions died during World War II for the freedoms we enjoy today. Let not Islam take those freedoms away! The growth of Islam in the West is indeed a serious threat to our Western way of life. Western politicians need to awaken from their slumbers. They have been lulled into a false sense security by the myths that the liberal media has peddled about the peaceful nature of Islam.

Islam is what it has always been: a belligerent, conquering ideology clothed in a deity. The West needs to be mindful of this at all times. There are many peaceful, delightful Muslims. This is very true. But what happens to societies in which Islam gains the upper hand is there around us for all to observe. And never forget this: Where there is no separation of politics and religion, there is no hope of democracy. Without democracy, there is no hope of freedom.

Geert Wilders has won a significant victory in The Netherlands. It is to be hoped that this victory will be a seminal moment for the West. It is to be hoped that this will mark a turning point in the West’s fortunes. Long live freedom of speech! Long live democracy! – © Mark

Geert Wilders Acquitted on Hate Speech Charges

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Geert Wilders, the Dutch far-right politician, has been acquitted on charges of hate speech and discrimination for statements he made attacking Islam.

Judge Marcel van Oosten told Mr Wilders, 47, who has been on trial in the Amsterdam regional court since last October, ruled that his statements were "acceptable within the context of the public debate".

The Dutch MP faced five counts of hate speech and discrimination for his anti-Islamic remarks on websites, internet forums and in Dutch newspapers between October 2006 and March 2008, and in his controversial 17-minute movie "Fitna" ("Discord" in Arabic).

The leader of the right-wing Party for Freedom's (PVV) acquittal comes on the backdrop of a prosecution unwilling to take up the case against the platinum-haired parliamentarian, who claimed before court he was "defending freedom in the Netherlands" against Islam. » | Thursday, June 23, 2011

Wilders Trial Coming to an End
RADIO NETHERLANDS WORLDWIDE: The trial of Geert Wilders is nearly over. On Thursday, the three Amsterdam district court judges conducting the trial will announce their verdict. It is widely expected that Mr Wilders will be acquitted on all the charges facing him.

If that is the case, the 29-month legal struggle which saw one of the country’s most popular and influential politicians accused of hate-mongering will come to an end.

It started back in January 2009 when justices of the Amsterdam court ordered the public prosecutor to bring charges against Mr Wilders of inciting hatred and discrimination, based on a number of his anti-Islamic statements published in the national media, as well as Mr Wilders’ film, Fitna.

The trial was supposed to be about

One moment during the dozens of courtroom sessions encapsulated what, for many, the trial was supposed to be about. Twenty-four-year-old law student Naoual Abaida, daughter of a Moroccan immigrant, stood in the courtroom not two metres from Mr Wilders. She was allowed to speak as one of the ‘injured parties’; one of the people who had initially petitioned the Justice Ministry to prosecute him.

Looking into his eyes she said his “insulting, polarising and provocative language has set the tone for a country becoming increasingly intolerant.”

The trial was really about

But for Mr Wilders and his high-profile defence lawyer, Bram Moszkowicz, the trial has been about free speech. To them, Mr Wilders is being persecuted for expressing his opinion. They have persuaded much of the Dutch public that this is what the trial is really about.

The courtroom trial got underway in January 2010. Cameras were allowed to film without restrictions during court sessions, a first in the Netherlands. The country has since followed the trial closely.

Islam on trial

The initial defence strategy was to put Islam on trial. Mr Moszkowicz asked the court to hear 18 witnesses, including various academics known for being highly critical of Islam, but also Mohammed Bouyeri, the convicted murderer of Theo van Gogh. The defence wanted to prove that the statements Mr Wilders had made about Islam were true, and therefore could not be considered as incitement.

The court allowed just three of those witnesses to testify in closed hearings. » | Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Trial of Geert Wilders Nears Verdict
NEW AMERICAN: As the spectacle of a man being tried for speaking the truth about Islam comes to its end in the Netherlands, the accused continues to assert that the accusations of “hate speech” that have been made against him are baseless — the problem is that Islam is an ideology of hatred.

Geert Wilders, leader of the Party for Freedom (PVV), has been on trial in Amsterdam on the accusation that he was “inciting hatred and discrimination” against Muslims. It appears, however, that not even prosecutors believe Wilders to be guilty of the charges against him. As CNSNews explained in an article on the Wilders case earlier this week:

The Dutch legal establishment has proceeded with the landmark trial even though public prosecutors have requested that it be abandoned, leading to the peculiar spectacle of the officials whose job is to secure a conviction instead urging the Amsterdam district court to acquit the accused man.

The lengthy trial also saw the judges replaced last fall on the instructions of a review panel, because of an appearance of bias against Wilders. Prosecution and defense alike have argued that Wilders’ statements about Islam constituted protected speech, and that Wilders was not speaking out against Muslims per se, but against what he saw as a growing threat to Dutch society posed by Islamism.

As reported previously for The New American, the trial of Wilders is a test of the willingness of the West to resist the latest onslaught of an Islamic Jihad, which has been waged for over 1,300 years. As Wilders and other courageous individuals have pointed out, the threat to the civilized world is not limited to al-Qaeda or the Muslim Brotherhood; the threat of Islam is based in Islam being a religion of hate. Rev. Elijah Abraham of Living Oasis Ministries spoke with The New American in an interview last year, and among the topics he addressed was his childhood growing up as a Muslim in Iraq: » | James Heisner | Thursday, June 02, 2011

Geert Wilders' Final Remarks at The Amsterdam Trial - English Subtitles

HT: Faith Freedom »

Judges Rule Case Against Dutch Anti-Islam MP To Continue
VOICE OF AMERICA: A court in Amsterdam on Monday has ruled that the hate speech trial of Dutch anti-Islam MP Geert Wilders will go on, with new judges listening to the defense’s preliminary objections to the case. Those objections were already heard by a different panel of judges last year, but a retrial was ordered because of possible judicial bias against Wilders. The populist politician is charged with inciting hatred and discrimination against Muslims and other non-Western groups.



If judges accept Mr. Wilders’ objections to the proceedings to be argued at a later date, then his case will be dismissed. If not, the trial will continue with Geert Wilders being allowed to question only some of the witnesses he wanted to call in his defense.



He told judges last week that he wanted to question radical Islamists, what this court referred to as Islamic experts by experience, including convicted murderer Mohammed Bouyeri, who killed filmmaker Theo van Gogh seven years ago. Wilders argues that Bouyeri is living proof that Islam leads to violence. >>> | Monday, February 14, 2011

HT: Robert Spencer of Jihad Watch >>>

Judges Told to Step Down in Wilders Trial
Geert Wilders says freedom of speech in the Netherlands is on trial. Photo: BBC
BBC: Judges in the hate speech trial of Dutch anti-Islam MP Geert Wilders have been ordered to step down by an independent appeals panel.

The move follows a request by Mr Wilders' lawyers who said they feared the judges were biased against him.

The legal process that began in January must now begin again with new judges. The trial itself started in October.

Mr Wilders faces five charges of inciting hatred and discrimination against Muslims.

If found guilty, he faces a maximum sentence of one year in jail.

Mr Wilders' lawyer Bram Moszkowicz had argued that the bench at Amsterdam District Court had created "an impression of partiality" by putting off a decision on the defence's request to recall a witness.

Being denied the opportunity to recall the witness would "make it impossible for the defence to substantiate a crucial part of its case", he added.

A hastily convened panel said on Friday that it found the trial judges' decision to be "incomprehensible in the absence of any motivation".

They said that Mr Wilders' fear of bias as a result was "understandable". >>> | Friday, October 22, 2010

Geert Wilders Trial Faces Restart After Judges Dismissed
THE TELEGRAPH: The trial of Geert Wilders on charges of inciting racial hatred against Muslims will have [to] begin all over again after the controversial Dutch anti-Islam politician won an appeal to have his judges sacked for bias.

A Dutch court ruled in favour of a request by Mr Wilders' defence lawyer to have new trial judges installed after allegations of improper conduct by a member of a judicial appeals panel directly involved in the case.

"This gives me a new chance of a new fair trial. I am confident that I can only be acquitted because I have broken no law, but spoken the truth," he said.

Mr Wilders, 47, went on trial on October 4 for inciting hatred by describing Islam as Nazism and for comparing the "fascist" Koran to Adolf Hitler's "Mein Kampf", which is banned in the Netherlands.

The charges were laid before Dutch elections last June returned Mr Wilders' Freedom Party as the third largest in the country's parliament.

He and his party's 23 other MPs have lent their support to a minority Dutch conservative government in return for key policy concessions, such as a burka ban and new curbs on immigration. >>> Bruno Waterfield | Friday, October 22, 2010

'Wilders Denied Fair Trial'
RADIO NETHERLANDS WORLDWIDE: Geert Wilders' defence lawyer told a court in Amsterdam on Tuesday that his client had been denied a fair trial. The Freedom party leader faces charges of inciting hatred, discrimination against minorities and insulting Muslims.

Last year an appeal court ordered the Public Prosecutor's office to press charges, despite its belief that the MP was protected by the right to free speech. >>> | Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Dutch Anti-Islam MP Just 'the Messenger': Lawyer
AFP: THE HAGUE — A defence lawyer rejected accusations of hate speech and xenophobia against Dutch anti-Islam MP Geert Wilders on Tuesday, urging judges not to "shoot the messenger".

"In his eyes, Islam is a totalitarian ideology," the politician's lawyer Bram Moszkowicz told judges of the Amsterdam district court on the first day of defence pleadings broadcast live via the Internet.

"He is trying to prevent violence from being committed with the Koran in hand," the lawyer said, adding: "Don't shoot the messenger." >>> AFP | Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Dutch Court Rejects Wilders Push to Change Judges at Muslim-Insult Trial
BLOOMBERG: The Amsterdam district court rejected a request by Freedom Party Leader Geert Wilders, who is on trial for inciting hatred and insulting Muslims, to replace the judges hearing his case because they may be prejudiced.

“There are no weighty indications that the judges have given the impression of being prejudiced,” Judge Frans Bauduin, who was brought in to rule on the impartiality question, said at the court today. The trial, which was halted yesterday, will continue with the current judges tomorrow at 9 a.m. local time. >>> Jurjen van de Pol | Tuesday, October 05, 2010

Geert Wilders in Court Over 'Koran Ban' Controversy


DUTCH NEWS.nl: Judges decide today if Wilders' inciting hatred trial can continue: A special court in Amsterdam will decide on Tuesday afternoon if new judges should be sworn in for the trial of anti-Islam MP Geert Wilders on charges of inciting hatred.

On Monday, Wilders’ lawyer Bram Moszkowicz challenged the legitimacy of the court after the presiding judge appeared to criticise Wilders’ decision not to answer any questions. >>> | Tuesday, October 05, 2010

Anti-Islam MP Geert Wilders On Trial for Inciting Racial Hatred
THE TELEGRAPH: Geert Wilders, the Dutch anti-Islam MP who will become a shadow partner in the next Dutch government, has gone on trial accused of inciting racial hatred against Muslims.

Wilders, 47, is charged with five counts of giving religious offence to Muslims and inciting hatred and discrimination against Muslims and people of non-Western immigrant origin, particularly Moroccans. Photo: The Telegraph
The controversial politician risks up to a year in jail or a 7,600-euro (£6,600) fine for calling Islam "fascist" and likening the Koran to Hitler's Mein Kampf.

Wilders, 47, is charged with five counts of giving religious offence to Muslims and inciting hatred and discrimination against Muslims and people of non-Western immigrant origin, particularly Moroccans.

In comments made between October 2006 and March 2008 in Dutch newspapers and on internet forums, prosecutors say that Wilders described Islam as "the sick ideology of Allah and Mohammed" and its holy book as "the Mein Kampf of a religion that seeks to eliminate others". >>> | Monday, October 04, 2010

Geert Wilders (right) and Bram Moszkovicz (left), his advocate. The trial judge is Jan Moors. Photograph: The Sydney Morning Herald
THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD: From kingmaker to racism trial >>> | Tuesday, October 05, 2010

Wilders On Trial the Entire Month of October
GATES OF VIENNA: The PVV leader Geert Wilders was formally notified on Thursday that the criminal case against him will continue next month. The Amsterdam court continues the process starting on October 4. The verdict is due on November 2.

Wilders must be in court on October 4, 6, 8, 12, 15 and 19. Two weeks later the verdict is planned.

“It’s terrible that I have be in court trial the entire month of October,” Wilders said Thursday after he had received the summoning. “I will stand trial one whole month for freedom of speech.”

Three session days and the day of the verdict are on a day when Parliament assembles. Continue reading and comment >>> Robin van der Kloor, Translation from Elsevier | Sunday, September 12, 2010

The Crooked Judges of Amsterdam

Douglas Murray – The Trial of Geert Wilders: Why We Won't Be Hearing About Camel Urine
THE TELEGRAPH: The trial of the Dutch politician Geert Wilders recommenced yesterday with a ruling on which expert witnesses the defence would be permitted to call.

When the trial opened a fortnight ago, Wilders asked for a rather sparky list of 18 expert witnesses. They included some noted experts on Islam and social cohesion. And also a few, ahem, practitioners of the same. They were to include Mohammed Bouyeri, who shot, stabbed and partly beheaded the film-maker Theo van Gogh in Amsterdam in 2004. And also Yusuf al-Qaradawi, the jihadist cleric who was given the red-carpet treatment in London by former mayor Ken Livingstone a few years back.

Sadly the Dutch court haven’t allowed these witnesses or most of the others, leaving the defence with only three witnesses. They are expert Simon Admiraal and leading Dutch scholar Hans Jansen (author of numerous scholarly books and the hilariously titled recent Islam for Pigs, Donkeys, Monkeys and Other Beasts). Most interestingly the court has allowed Wilders to call as an expert witness the brave and eloquent Wafa Sultan.

Sultan made her name – and garnered her first fatwas – for a blinding hit-the-ball-out-of-the-stadium interview on Al Jazeera a few years ago viewable here. It caused terrible convulsions across the Muslim world, and also apparently in Sheikh al-Qaradawi who described her home-truths session as consisting of “unbearable, ghastly things that made my hair stand on end.”

I much look forward to seeing Wafa Sultan take the stand. Though I slightly pity the prosecution for having to attempt to cross-examine her. Read on and comment here >>> Douglas Murray | Thursday, February 04, 2010

Anti-Islam Dutch Lawmaker Says He’s Being Denied a Fair Trial; Court Rejects Most of His Witness List
CNS NEWS: The Dutch lawmaker on trial for his provocative views on Islam said Wednesday he was being denied the right to a fair trial after the court rejected most of his requested defense witnesses, including a convicted murderer who invoked the Koran to justify his actions.

The Amsterdam District Court ruled that Geert Wilders could only call three witnesses out of the 18 he wanted. Among those it turned down was Mohammed Bouyeri, imprisoned for life in 2005 for murdering a Dutch critic of Islam, filmmaker Theo van Gogh, on an Amsterdam street the previous year.

In a statement released after the brief hearing, Wilders said, “This court is not interested in the truth. This court doesn’t want me to have a fair trial. I can’t have any respect for this. This court would not be out of place in a dictatorship.” >>> Patrick Goodenough, International Editor | Thursday, February 04, 2010

Anti-Muslim Dutch Lawmaker's Trial Tests Freedom of Speech
TIME: A flamboyant populist and founder of a virulently anti-immigrant political party, Geert Wilders sees himself as a champion of free speech in the Netherlands. Others would disagree. Wilders, a member of the Dutch parliament, is in court this week to face five counts of inciting hatred and discrimination for describing Islam as a fascist religion and Moroccan youths as violent, and for calling for the banning of the Quran. The trial, which resumed Wednesday after a two-week break, is being seen as a test of the limits of free speech and the famously tolerant country's commitment to protecting minority rights.

Wilders, a 46-year-old with bleach-blond, bouffant hair, made international headlines in 2008 when he made a short film called Fitna, in which verses from the Quran were displayed against a background of violent film clips and images of terrorism by Islamic radicals. Described as "offensively anti-Islamic" by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, the film led to protests in the Muslim world and prompted Britain to ban Wilders from entering the country. But it also brought Wilders more popularity at home. His Party for Freedom finished second in last year's European Parliament elections, winning 17% of the Dutch vote. His party also holds nine seats in the Dutch parliament.

Because of his extreme anti-Muslim views, Wilders is often compared to the leaders of Europe's other far-right parties, such as Nick Griffin of the British National Party and Jean-Marie Le Pen of France's National Front. But he claims (though his opponents strongly disagree) that his policies are rooted in the Dutch tradition of tolerance: he says that Islam is a threat to women's rights and he criticizes Muslims' anti-gay rhetoric. Now under 24-hour surveillance because of the many death threats he's received, Wilders told TIME last year that Islam itself stirs hatred. "The Quran is full of incitements to violence," he said. "Islam wants to dominate every part of life and society. It does not want to integrate or assimilate, but to dominate. It should not be compared to other religions, but with totalitarian ideologies, like communism or fascism." >>> Leo Cendrowicz | Wednesday, February 03, 2010

Bram Moszkowicz, Geert Wilders' lawyer. Photo: De Telegraaf
Wilders’ Lawyer Speaks Out
GATES OF VIENNA: Moszkowicz: Court is overestimating itself

The lawyer for Geert Wilders, Bram Moszkowicz, finds that the court overestimates itself, now that it has found it unnecessary to hear some legal experts. “That is quite something, that a court finds that no legal experts are needed,” Bram Moszkowicz said. “With this the court overestimates itself, and when a judge overestimates himself, I start to be afraid.” >>> Baron Bodissey | Translation by VH | Wednesday, February 03, 2010

Original article in Dutch in De Telegraaf

Geert Wilders Doesn’t Get His Way in Court
RADIO NETHERLANDS WORLDWIDE: Dutch politician Geert Wilders was visibly annoyed when he failed to get what he asked for from the three judges hearing his case at the Amsterdam District Court.

Mr Wilders, through his lawyer Bram Moszkowicz, had requested that 17 witnesses testify as part of his defence against charges that include inciting hatred of Muslims and non-western immigrants.
 


Murderer


Among others, Mr Wilders had asked that Mohammed Bouyeri, the convicted murderer of Theo van Gogh, be called as a expert witness.
 


The judges, however, will not allow Bouyeri to testify. They have also ruled that other 'Muslim extremists' on Mr Wilders' 'wishlist' will not be allowed to testify. The list includes Fawaz Jneid, imam at the Soennah Mosque in The Hague, and Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, chairman of the Guardian Council in Iran.

Ex-Muslims

Mr Wilders will be permitted to call three experts on Islam, out of the total of eight he had actually asked for. However, two ex-Muslims called by his defence team - in part to give their personal view about the impact of Islam - were also rejected.
 


In their ruling, the judges say Mr Wilders will have ample opportunity to tell the court whether he agrees with their decision to disallow some of his chosen witnesses[.] Staying in Amsterdam >>> John Tyler | Wednesday, February 03, 2010

Court Limits Wilders' Witness List
DUTCHNEWS.nl: The killer of Theo van Gogh and 14 of the other witnesses anti-Islam MP Geert Wilders wanted to call in his defence against charges of discrimination and inciting hatred have been ruled inadmissible by Amsterdam district court.

But three Islam experts proposed by Wilders will be heard behind closed doors, the judges said on Wednesday afternoon. They include American Syrian psychiatrist Wafa Sultan who believes the world is witness to 'a battle between modernity and barbarism which Islam will lose'.

The court also turned down Wilders' request to hear five legal experts on the grounds that the MP will have ample opportunity to say whether or not he agrees with them during the trial. He had wanted to call 18 experts and Muslim radicals. Truth >>> © DutchNews.nl | Wednesday, February 03, 2010

The Trial of Geert Wilders: English Translation

Ed West: Geert Wilders Is Not 'Far Right'
THE TELEGRAPH: Like my colleague Douglas Murray, who has already written an excellent post on the show trial of the century, I’ve been surprised by the lack of British media interest in Geert Wilders’s martyrdom in Amsterdam. An American minor celebrity only has to fart to receive blanket coverage in the British press, but when a major politician next door faces jail on trumped-up charges – in a case that will have implications for our freedom of speech – there seems to be little interest.

For those who haven’t visited these parts, Wilders is a Dutch politician on trial for “insulting” Islam by comparing the Koran to Mein Kampf, and for saying that Moroccans commit many street robberies in the Netherlands. Yes, put on trial – not fisked or twitter-lynched or condemned by the Equality Gestapo, but actually brought to court. Wilders calls it “surreal”, and it certainly seems strange that in a city where a gentleman can smoke Morocco’s most famous export and view half-naked women in shop windows, he can go to jail for criticising a religion. >>> Ed West | Saturday, January 30, 2010