Hate Speech Trial against Wilders part 2
I just happened to find out that the trial against Mr. Geert Wilders for Hate Speech (Dutch) is about to be resumed. Already next Monday there will be a first session of the re-trial against the leader of the PVV or Freedom Party. This will be a planning session on which the dates will be planned for the sessions of the new trial.
New witnesses
For the first trial Geert Wilders had asked for hearings for 18 witnesses. The court turned down 15 of these witnesses. For the new trial Geert Wilder's defense Bram Moszkowicz made a new request for having the 15 witnesses heard by the Court. The three original witnesses will also be heard again. Another new witness is to be heard. That is Justice Tom Schalken (Dutch), one of the three judges who ordered the trial and who tried to influence the witness for Geert Wilders' defense Hans Jansen. When the news that Justice Schalken tried to influence Hans Jansen came out it caused the original October trial to stall.
On 14 February the final decisions for the planning of the trial will be taken.
A well-prepared court
The website of the courts rechtspraak.nl has announced that the new trial will be done with new judges, who will be better prepared to deal with the intense media scruteny for the trial. Additionally the substitution court will be staffed by judges from the Haarlem court in order to avoid having a substitution court with judges who have friendly relations with the trial judges having to substitute the latter. This caused intense recriminations between judges after the trial within the Amsterdam Court.
The charges against Wilders
The Public Prosecution (OM) has announced it will demand a "not guilty" for hate speech and discrimination for Mr. Wilders. Despite this the judges may still convict Geert Wilders on those charges, but this is not so likely.
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