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http://www.jihadwatch.org/2009/12/geert-wilders-receives-summons-a-sledgehammer-blow-to-the-freedom-of-speech.html

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.’

Arabs charged over Dutch cartoon

(source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8234359.stm)

An Arab organisation is to be put on trial in the Netherlands over its publication of a cartoon deemed offensive to Jews, prosecutors say.

The cartoon, published by the Arab European League (AEL) on its website, questions the Holocaust.

It said the decision to prosecute illustrated bias against Muslims.

It said the same standards were not applied to the Dutch MP Geert Wilders, who made a film including cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad.

Last month prosecutors said they would not put the far-right MP on trial for distributing the controversial Danish cartoons, which caused a storm of protest after their publication in 2005.

Freedom of expression is only a pretext to make life bitter for Muslims

However, he is still being investigated separately for inciting hatred against Muslims by making statements comparing Islam to Nazism.

But Dutch prosecutors said the AEL cartoon was “discriminatory” and “offensive to Jews as a group… because it offends Jews on the basis of their race and/or religion”.

The cartoon shows two men standing near a pile of bones at “Auswitch” (sic). One says “I don’t think they’re Jews”.

The other replies: “We have to get to the six million somehow.”

A spokeswoman for the prosecuting authority said the group could be fined up to 4,700 euros (£4,100), though in theory a prison sentence was also possible.

‘Perverse’

AEL chairman Abdoulmouthalib Bouzerda said the charges proved “what Muslims have been saying for decades”.

“Freedom of expression is only a pretext to make life bitter for Muslims… and if [they] try to bring this hypocrisy to light, that right is denied them.”

The AEL says it does not deny the facts of the Holocaust but posted the cartoon as an “act of civil disobedience”.

It said it had agreed to remove it from its site, but reversed that decision to protest over the failure to prosecute Geert Wilders.

“Double standards are being applied,” it said in a statement.

But Jewish groups said it was not reasonable for the group to express its opposition to alleged bias against Muslims, by attacking Jews.

Ronny Naftaniel of the Center for Documentation on Israel, said: “Imagine if Dutch Jews insulted Muslims every time they heard an anti-Semitic remark. What kind of perverse world would we be living in?”

Tensions over the Netherlands’ Muslim population have increased in recent years, notably since the killing of a controversial film-maker by a Muslim extremist in 2004.

via BBC NEWS | Europe | Arabs charged over Dutch cartoon.