Pakistani Mullah Jalali, political leader Rizvi convicted of calling for Wilders murder

A Pakistani religious leader was convicted and sentenced to 14 years in prison for trying to convince people to kill Dutch far right politician Geert Wilders. The District Court of The Hague convicted Mullah Muhammad Jalali, 56, in the verdict it issued on Monday. The court also convicted his compatriot, Saad Hussain Rizvi, the 29-year-old head of the far-right Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan political party. Both men were convicted in absentia, and did not appoint an attorney to represent them during the trial.

Jalali was convicted for attempted incitement to commit murder, trying to incite murder with terrorist intent, and making threatening statements. Jalali abused the authority he has as a spiritual leader, the District Court of The Hague said in the verdict. The 56-year-old had issued a fatwa against Wilders, a direct order to his followers to kill the leader of Dutch coalition party, PVV.

The sentence the court imposed on Jalali is equivalent to the sentence demanded by the Public Prosecution Service (OM) during the trial at the heavily securied court facility near Schiphol Airport. The OM had recommended a six-year prison sentence for Rizvi, the founder and head of a radical Islamist political party in his home country.

Both men had delivered their threats during meetings and also on social media, where they have a reach of millions of people. They let their followers know that Wilders should be killed, whether by hanging or beheading. "It can be assumed that many people take these statements very seriously," according to the court.

Both Pakistani men were absent during the trial, and also during the reading of the verdict. They also did not designate attorneys to sit in court on their behalf when the verdict was delivered.

It is questionable whether they will ever actually end up in a Dutch cell. The Netherlands does not have an extradition treaty with Pakistan.

Wilders was again present in court. He called the convictions "an important signal, also internationally" that making these statements will not go unpunished. The court referred to the victim statement that the politician had read last week, in which he spoke about the negative consequences of the threats on his life.

The threats against Wilders are partly in response to a cartoon competition about the Prophet Mohammed that the PVV member organized in 2018. At the time, there were many demonstrations against it in Pakistan.

Earlier, Khalid Latif, a former Pakistani cricketer, was also sentenced in absentia in the Netherlands to 12 years in prison for attempting to incite the murder of Wilders after that cartoon competition. Wilders eventually called off the competition due to threats against him.