The Amsterdam court on Monday 9 September sentenced two Pakistanis who had called for the assassination of Geert Wilders, leader of the Party for Freedom (PVV), whose far-right party has been in power for a year within the coalition led by Prime Minister Dick Schoof.
Muhammad Ashraf Asif Jalali and Hafiz Saad Hussain Rizvi were sentenced to fourteen and four years in prison respectively. The two men were not present at the hearing and were not represented by a lawyer. The prosecutor had tried in vain to obtain their appearance, but the Pakistani justice system had not responded to his requests and the Netherlands had not signed an extradition treaty with Islamabad.
In 2018, Muhammad Ashraf Asif Jalali, founder of the Islamist party Tehreek-e-Sirat-e-Mustaqeem, had issued a fatwa against the Dutchman, accused of blasphemy against the Prophet, in several tweets read by the president of the court. He called for him to be hanged or beheaded. These calls followed the idea launched by Geert Wilders of a competition for caricatures of Muhammad, in an evident desire to revive the controversies that arose after the publications of the Danish newspaper. Jyllands-Posten, in 2005, and those of Charlie Hebdo, in 2015. He eventually abandoned this idea, but large demonstrations took place, especially in Pakistan. Hafiz Saad Hussain Rizvi, leader of the extremist Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan party, also called for Wilders’ assassination and urged Dutch Muslims to take action to eliminate him.
Life under very high protection.
The PVV leader was present at both the end and the beginning of this trial which took place in the ultra-secure Schiphol court, outside Amsterdam. On Monday 2 September he remained standing, eager to set an example for this matter. Making use of his right to speak, he discussed the “tens of thousands of death threats” that has been received over the last twenty years. “Sometimes up to a hundred an hour”He is said to have filed a complaint a thousand times in 2022 alone, but has since stopped doing so: “Not because the threats have stopped, but because I have to keep working” said.
Delighted by the prosecutor’s harsh searches, the far-right leader took the opportunity to detail his life under very high protection. He says he lived in barracks, police stations, safe houses and prisons, forced to move constantly. He explained that he wore false moustaches and wigs so as not to be recognized. To celebrate Christmas in Hungary, his wife’s country, he traveled in an empty cargo plane. And at his mother’s funeral he was, as usual, surrounded by his bodyguards. “Some weeks I don’t know what the weather is like because I can’t breathe outside.”he insisted.
You have 44.77% of this article left to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.
