Geert Wilders receives summons: a sledgehammer blow to the freedom of speech
Saturday, December 5th, 2009Find the full post at:
Geert Wilders receives summons: a sledgehammer blow to the freedom of speech
A statement on the Wilders trial:
The 20th of January 2010 will be a crucial day for defending our freedom. This is the day when the political trial against Geert Wilders will start. Yesterday, Geert Wilders was summoned by the Public Prosecution Service (PPS) on behalf of the Court of Justice of Amsterdam. The indictment reads: group insult of Muslims, incitement to hatred and discrimination against Muslims due to their religion and incitement to hatred and discrimination against non-western immigrants and / or Moroccans due to their race.
Geert Wilders: “On the 20th of January 2010, a political trial will start. I am being prosecuted for my political convictions. The freedom of speech is on the verge of collapsing. If a politician is not allowed to criticise an ideology anymore, this means that we are lost, and it will lead to the end of our freedom. However I remain combative: I am convinced that I will be acquitted.”
In earlier stages, the PPS did not see any reason to prosecute Mr. Wilders.
Bram Moszkowicz, the lawyer on the case at hand, has submitted a notice of objection to the summons on the point of group insult on behalf of Geert Wilders. Earlier this year, the Supreme Court of the Netherlands ruled that even though it is indeed punishable to insult a group of people, it is not punishable to insult a religion as such. Due to this the order of the Court of Amsterdam on this point is deemed incorrect.
And here is the summons, from the District Court, Office of the Public Prosecutor, in Amsterdam:
SUMMONS OF THE ACCUSED
To: name: Wilders
first names: Geert
born on: 06 September 1963 in Venlo
residing in: 2513 AA The Hague
address: Binnenhof 1 A
I hereby summon you to on Wednesday 20 January 2010 at 09:00 o’clock appear as the accused at the hearing of the three-judge criminal division in the district of Amsterdam, Parnassusweg 220, in order to be tried on that which is specified below.
I refer to the notices under 1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10 on the reverse side of this page.
A notice of objection submitted by you will be handled on the date and time as specified in the summons. In case of dismissal the Court can directly proceed with deliberation of the case.
The Public Prosecutor
[illegible signature]
The aforementioned summoned person is charged with the fact that
1. he, on one or more dates in or about the period from 8 August 2007 up to and including 27 March 2008, in The Hague and/or Amsterdam and/or (elsewhere in) the Netherlands, on multiple occasions, at least once, (each time) in public, orally, in writing or through images, intentionally offended a group of people, i.e. Muslims, based on their religion, by (each time) intentionally in
- De Volkskrant and/or
- on the internet on the website www.liveleak.com (in the film Fitna)
placing (having placed) and/or showing (having showed) and/or having heard one or more texts and/or images and/or footage and/or audio fragments with the following content:
(De Volkskrant of 8 August 2007, ‘Enough is enough: prohibit the Quran’)
‘A moderate Islam does not exist. It does not exist because there is no distinction between Good Islam and Bad Islam. There is Islam and that is it. And Islam means the Quran and nothing but the Quran. And the Quran is the Mein Kampf of a religion that intends to eliminate others and that refers to those others – non-Muslims – as unfaithful dogs, inferior beings. Read the Quran, this Mein Kampf, again. In whatever version, you will see that all the evil that the sons of Allah commit to us and themselves originates from this book (Oriana Fallaci, The Force of Reason, post-script, page 305, February 2006).’
and/or
‘The core of the problem is the fascist Islam, the sick ideology of Allah and Mohammed as laid down in the Islamic Mein Kampf: the Quran. The texts from the Quran leave little to imagination.’
and/or
‘Prohibit this miserable book the way Mein Kampf was also prohibited!’
and/or
‘I have enough of the Quran in the Netherlands: prohibit this fascist book.’
and/or
(The film Fitna, placed on www.liveleak.com on 27 March 2008)
‘Islam wants to control, subdue and is out for the destruction of our Western civilisation. In 1945 Nazism was beaten in Europe. In 1989 communism was beaten in Europe. Now the Islamic ideology must be beaten. Stop the Islamisation. Defend our freedom.’