Public Prosecutors to prosecute Pakistanis who urged people to murder Geert Wilders

The Public Prosecution Service (OM) will prosecute a religious leader and political leader in Pakistan who urged their followers to murder Geert Wilders—according to the OM, the two men from Pakistan made their comments verbally at meetings and on social media with videos and text messages.

The men are 55 and 29 years of age. Their case will be heard on September 2 at the judicial complex at Schiphol, OM announced on Wednesday. The 55-year-old religious leader is suspected of attempting to instigate the murder of the Dutch politician. In several appeals, he would state "that this act will be rewarded in the afterlife."

The 29-year-old political leader is suspected of incitement to murder. The OM claims that he said he and the public should take on this task. He did this after Khalid Latif, a Pakistani former cricketer, was convicted in the Netherlands of attempted solicitation of murder.

Wilders reacted on X and reported that the men in question are mullah Muhammed Ashraf Jalali and TLP-leader Saad Hussein Rizvi. "I hope they are extradited, convicted, and sent to jail!" Wilders also expressed hope last year that they would be prosecuted for the murder fatwas they issued about him.

Latif was sentenced to twelve years in prison in September of last year for a video that he put on Facebook in 2018 in which he offered an amount of the equivalent of 21,000 euros for the murder of the PVV leader. He posted the video in response to a cartoon competition devised by Wilders about the prophet Mohammed. At that time, there were plenty of demonstrations against this in Pakistan.

The Netherlands does not have a legal assistance treaty with Pakistan. On Wednesday, the OM asked the Pakistani authorities to issue the summons to the suspects and requested that the suspects be heard about the accusation. Whether Pakistan will cooperate in this is uncertain. According to the OM, requests for legal assistance were never responded to in the cricketer's case.

The case regarding Latif was the first time that the OM prosecuted someone abroad for threatening a Dutch politician. In February 2021, the court in The Hague sentenced another Pakistani, Junaid I., to ten years in prison for, among other things, preparing a terrorist attack on Wilders. I. was arrested in The Hague in August 2018.