Geert Wilders hate speech criminal charges revealed

By Janene Pieters on March 9, 2016 - 07:50
Geert Wilders
. (Geert Wilders (PVV) Source: Wikimedia/Rijksvoorlichtingsdienst)

The Public Prosecutor released the indictment in the hate speech trial against PVV leader Geert Wilders on Tuesday. The PVV leader is officially charged with four "variants" of two hate speech offenses, NOS reports.

Wilders is facing charges of firstly deliberately insulting a group of people because of their race. Secondly, inciting hatred or discrimination against these people. The Prosecutor is accusing Wilders with four variants of each of these offenses - complicity, commit, incitement and "doing it complicity".

By charging Wilders with each possible variant of the offenses, it seems that the Public Prosecutor is trying to avoid the trial being prematurely stranded by Wilders' lawyer arguing that the offenses are not properly named in the indictment, according to NOS. "The Public Prosecutor has an opinion on this, but it may be that the court sees it differently and therefore we included different variants in the indictment", a spokesperson said to the broadcaster.

The lawsuits revolves around statements Wilders made during campaign visits to The Hague in March 2014. On March 12th of that year the PVV leader paid a visit to Loosduinen and said that The Hague should be “a city with fewer burdens and if possible fewer Moroccans”. And then on the eve of the municipal elections, Wilders asked a cafe full of people whether they wanted more or fewer Moroccans, to which they chanted “fewer, fewer, fewer”.

Wilders' lawyer Geert Jan Knoops is holding his comments on the indictment for the first hearing in the process next week. 

The PVV leader responded on Twitter: "No one will silence me. Also not about Moroccans. Not terrorist threats, not prosecutor with nonsense indictments, not judge. Nobody."

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