GEERT WILDERS TO BE TRIED FOR HATE SPEECH

Well all the free speech apologists for Geert Wilders that never defend free speech of those that piss them off are going to be busy next week because the Dutch politician who has spent the past few years on his own personal little race war against Muslims is about to go on trial for promoting hate speech. See, a country that was once occupied by the Nazis knows well enough not to let crap like the stuff Wilders go without protest, so he is going to have to justify his stances. Wilders was recently brought into this country courtesy of hatemonger David Horowitz who brought him to a number of college campuses. Hopefully, the next university Wilders will speak at will be behind prison walls. Unfair? A violation of free speech? Sending us down a slippery slope of oppression? Yes – Wilders is about all of that.

NRC Handelsblad

Geert Wilders will be tried for hate speech and inciting discrimination in a Dutch court next Wednesday.Archive – Geert Wilders prosecuted for hate speech
A ruling on Tuesday took away the last obstacle standing in the way of the case against anti-Islam politician Geert Wilders, when the court dismissed his objections against prosecution.

Wilders’ lawyer, Bram Moszkowicz, had argued his client could not be prosecuted for discriminatory insults since the Dutch supreme court had very narrowly defined that concept in a ruling last March. The supreme court then found that insulting a religion did not automatically imply an insult to its believers, meaning it could be legal.

Last Tuesday however, the lower court hearing Wilder’s objections found that the supreme court ruling did not stand in the way of Wilder’s prosecution.

The ruling paves the way for the case against Wilders to be tried, which has been long in the making.

The case against Wilders originates in several complaints filed by the Dutch lawyer Gerard Spong on behalf of several clients, including the well known Dutch comedian Jörgen Raymann and the board of the As Soennah Mosque in The Hague.

Wilders’ contested remarks include a comparison of the Koran to Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf, a reference to the prophet Muhammed as a fundamentalist who should be tarred and feathered and expelled from the Netherlands, and a remark that not a single additional Muslim should be allowed to enter the country.

The public prosecutor had first chosen not to file suit against Wilders because his remarks were made “in the context of societal debate”. A number of people successfully lodged legal objections to that decision. The judges ruled that some of Wilder’s remarks might be in violation of the law, thus warranting prosecution, including his statements comparing the Muslim faith to Nazi ideology. Wilders’ objection to that decision was turned down this Tuesday.

The first – preliminary – hearing in the case against Wilders will be held next Wednesday.