Judges dismissed in Geert Wilders trial
Judges dismissed in Geert Wilders trial
Following allegations of improper conduct, a Dutch court has ruled in favour of a retrial of Dutch politician Geert Wilders, with new trial judges set to be installed.
Mr. Wilders went on trial on 4 October 2010 having been charged with five counts of giving religious offence to Muslims and inciting hatred and discrimination against Muslims and people of non-Western immigrant origin.
Responding to the latest trial news, Mr. Wilders told reporters: "This gives me a new chance of a new fair trial. I am confident that I can only be acquitted because I have broken no law, but spoken the truth."
The Dutch MP is known for his outspoken comments on Islam. He has been accused of describing Islam as "the sick ideology of Allah and Mohammed" and its holy book as "the Mein Kampf of a religion that seeks to eliminate others”.
His trial took a new twist on 22 October after allegations emerged that a judge may have tried to pressure one of the defence witnesses. It transpired that one of the appeal court judges who ordered Wilders to stand trial had dinner in May with a potential witness, a Dutch expert on Islam, and that the judge had sought to convince the professor why Wilders had to be prosecuted.
Mr. Wilders' Freedom Party (PVV) was back by 1.5 million voters during the June 2010 elections, placing it third with 24 seats out of 150 in the Dutch lower house of parliament.
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