Wilders: Decision as good as guilty verdict

The Amsterdam appeal court is showing political bias by deciding he should be prosecuted for inciting hatred, anti-immigration MP Geert Wilders says in an interview with the NRC.


‘I have studied it [the ruling] and I have concluded that it is a political ruling,’ the MP said.
The appeal court said on Wednesday that Wilders’ should face charges, overturning a decision by the public prosecution department not to take him to court.
And in a reference to justice minister Ernst Hirsch Ballin’s plans to include blasphemy in existing anti-discrimination legislation Wilders told the paper: ‘The Wall street Journal is right: the court has introduced Saudi norms here.’
Wilders who will be prosecuted for statements like ‘ban the Koran’ and ‘the heart of the problem is the fascist nature of Islam’, told the NRC he feels he has been treated unfairly by the court.
‘I was not asked any questions by the court and I have not been able to call any witnesses for the defence or experts,’ he said. Wilders claims that the appeal court’s decision is as good as a guilty verdict and labeled the procedure ‘banana justice’.
Legal boundaries
Asked if he thought comparing Mein Kampf to the Koran and calling Islam a fascist ideology fall within the boundaries of the law Wilders replied that he does not see Islam as a religion but as a ‘dangerous, totalitarian’ ideology.
‘I am allowed to say that. If I had said the same about communism there would not be a problem. I have always criticised ideologies, people never,’ he told the NRC.
The MP says he thinks incitement to violence would be overstepping the mark but insists this is not what he does. ‘The cabinet distinguishes between western and non-western immigrants. I go that little bit further. But these things should be thrashed out in the political arena, not in court,’ he said.
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