Amsterdam: Agencies
A Dutch court has convicted, in absentia, a religious leader and a Pakistani politician for calling on their followers to kill anti-Islam MP Geert Wilders, leader of the Freedom Party that won the Dutch general election. He is known for his anti-Islam positions.
Neither defendant was present in court to hear the verdicts. They are believed to be in Pakistan and are unlikely to be extradited as there is no extradition agreement between Pakistan and the Netherlands.
Last week, prosecutors said requests they had sent to Pakistani authorities seeking legal assistance to serve summonses on the two men had not been implemented.
The court convicted Mohammad Ashraf Jalali of inciting the killing of Wilders with terrorist intent and issuing threats. He was sentenced to 14 years in prison, according to the ruling request submitted by prosecutors last week.
The court said Jalali is a religious leader whose website claims to have millions of followers worldwide. It stressed that his fatwa to his followers "violated Wilders' personal privacy in a very serious way."
Such threats “can also harm freedom of expression in general, while a democratic society benefits from being able to exchange opinions without physical danger,” she added.

In the second case, the court convicted Saad Rizvi, who leads the radical Islamist movement Labaik, of incitement to murder and threatening Wilders. He was sentenced to four years in prison, two years less than prosecutors had requested. He received the shorter sentence in part because the court ruled that his comments on social media did not amount to a terrorist crime.

Wilders welcomed the verdicts and sentences handed down by the three-judge panel.

“I am very happy about this,” he said outside the courtroom. “I think it is the first time ever in the Netherlands that an imam from abroad has been sentenced to a long prison term for issuing a fatwa demanding the head of a member of the Dutch parliament. ... My head. I am very happy about this.”

Wilders has lived under round-the-clock security for nearly 20 years due to thousands of threats to his life following his outspoken criticism of Islam. His bodyguards and two armed military policemen sat in the courtroom for Monday’s hearing.