Wilders should be fined for anti-Moroccan chant, says public prosecutor

Dutch anti-Islam campaigner Geert Wilders should be fined €5,000 for leading supporters in an anti-Moroccan chant after the local elections in 2014, the public prosecution department said on Thursday.

The department said in its sentencing statement that Wilders had been ‘unnecessarily offensive’ and had attacked an entire population group.

In addition, the speech and the chanting had been well planned in advance causing  ‘insult, fear, hatred and divisiveness’, public prosecutor Wouter Bos said.

Wilders is not attending the trial, arguing that it is politically motivated. In a statement on Twitter, published before the sentencing demand was made, he described it as ‘madness’. ‘I will not let it stop me,’ the MP said.

As the sentencing demand was being read out, in parliament several MPs unfurled a banner with Wilders’ photograph and a cross over his mouth, disrupting a debate on the defense ministry.

According to the Telegraaf, camera crews and photographers had been tipped off about the action in advance. Demonstrations are not allowed in the lower house and court officials removed the banner.

Judges are due to publish their verdict on December 9.

Protest PVV-politici in Tweede Kamer na eis OM tegen #Wilders OM eist geldboete van 5000 euro. #PVV pic.twitter.com/fURvYLCM0w

— Gerard ten Voorde (@gerardtenvoorde) November 17, 2016