Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Dutch Court of Appeal orders prosecution of Geert Wilders

In a surprising move the Amsterdam Court of appeal today ordered the prosecution of Dutch Parlementarian and MP Geert Wilders. The Public Prosecution (OM) had earlier decided against prosecution of Wilders for making Islam-critical comments on the grounds that the comments were made as a part of the "social debate" and as such are not prosecutable.

Today the Amsterdam Court of Appeal published a judgement agreeing to an appeal by Leftist and Muslim appelants who want to see Geert Wilders prosecuted and punished for opposing Islam.

Mr. Geert Wilders (Dutch) reacted shocked to the judgement and vowed to fight it to the High Court.

A member of the Liberal-Conservative VVD reacted negatively to the Court's decision while MP Ton Heerts (Dutch), a Labour (PvdA) politician and Abdelmajid Khairoun (Dutch) of the National Muslim Council (NMO) reacted cheerfully.

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