Two Pakistanis sentenced in the Netherlands for inciting the murder of Geert Wilders

An Amsterdam court on Monday, September 9, sentenced two Pakistanis who had called for the murder of Geert Wilders, the leader of the Party for Freedom (PVV), whose far-right party has been in power for a year in the coalition led by Prime Minister Dick Schoof.

Muhammad Ashraf Asif Jalali and Hafiz Saad Hussain Rizvi were sentenced to 14 and four years in prison respectively. The two men were not present at the hearing and were not represented by a lawyer. The prosecution had tried in vain to obtain their appearance, but the Pakistani courts did not respond to their requests, and the Netherlands has not signed an extradition treaty with Islamabad.

In 2018, Muhammad Ashraf Asif Jalali, founder of the Islamist party Tehreek-e-Sirat-e-Mustaqeem, had – in several tweets, read by the president of the court – issued a fatwa against the Dutchman, accused of blasphemy against the prophet. He called for him to be hanged or beheaded. These calls followed the idea launched by Geert Wilders of a competition of caricatures of Muhammad, with an obvious desire to revive the controversies born after the publications of the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Postenin 2005, and those of Charlie Hebdo, in 2015. He eventually abandoned the idea, but there were massive protests, especially in Pakistan. Hafiz Saad Hussain Rizvi, leader of the extremist Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan party, also called for Mr Wilders’s murder and urged Dutch Muslims to take action to eliminate him.

Life under very high protection

The PVV leader was present at the end and the beginning of this trial, which took place in the ultra-secure Schiphol court in the suburbs of Amsterdam. On Monday 2 September, he remained standing, anxious to give an exemplary character to this case. Using his right to speak, he spoke about the “Tens of thousands of death threats” which he has received for about twenty years. “Up to a hundred per hour at times”he claims. He is said to have filed complaints a thousand times in 2022 alone, but has since stopped: “Not that the threats stop, but because I have to continue working,” he said.

Rejoicing in the prosecutor’s harsh demands, the far-right leader took the opportunity to detail his life under very high protection. He claims to have lived in barracks, police stations, safe houses and prisons, forced to move constantly. He has, he explained, worn fake moustaches and wigs so as not to be recognised. To celebrate Christmas in Hungary, his wife’s country, he travelled on 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 fresh air.”he insisted.

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