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01-03-2024
AMSTERDAM: A Dutch court said it had charged two Pakistani nationals on Wednesday over public calls for the murder of far-right anti-Muslim leader Geert Wilders, who aims to lead a new government after his party won elections in November.
In a statement on Wednesday, the court said prosecutors had asked authorities in Pakistan to extradite the two suspects, aged 55 and 29 to stand trial in the Netherlands.
It said the two Pakistanis were suspected of publicly calling on people to kill Wilders and promising them a reward in the afterlife if they did so. It did not say how those calls were made.
In September, a Dutch court sentenced a Pakistani former cricketer to 12 years in prison after he was tried in absentia for publicly urging people to kill Wilders.
“I hope they (two suspects) will be extradited, convicted and jailed!” Wilders wrote in a post on X.
The court scheduled its first hearing on the case for Sept. 2. The Netherlands and Pakistan do not have an extradition treaty, leaving prospects for a trial unclear.
Three months ago, Dutch anti-EU far-right populist Geert Wilders, who has vowed to halt all immigration to the Netherlands, was set for a major victory in parliamentary elections on Wednesday, an exit poll showed.
Beating all predictions, the exit poll put Wilders’ Freedom Party (PVV) at 35 out of 150 seats, 10 seats ahead of the closest rival, former EU Commissioner Frans Timmermans’ Labour/Green Left combination. That margin was far more than expected and appeared to be too great for the outcome to change while six months ago, a Dutch court 
sentenced a Pakistani former cricketer to 12 years in prison on Monday after he was tried in absentia for urging people to murder Dutch far-right leader Geert Wilders.
The court ruled that statements by 37-year-old Khalid Latif should be regarded as incitement to murder, sedition and threat.
Latif lives in Pakistan and has not attended any stage of the trial or been detained in the Netherlands.
The Netherlands and Pakistan have no treaties in place regarding judicial cooperation or extradition and earlier cooperation requests in this case received no response, the prosecution has said.
The court said prosecutors had proved that Latif posted a video in 2018, in which he offered a 3 million rupee (around 21,000 euros at the time) reward for the murder of Wilders.
That video came at a time of fierce demonstrations against Wilders in Pakistan, after he had announced a cartoon contest depicting caricatures of the Muslim Prophet Mohammad. The competition was later cancelled. (Int’l Monitoring Desk)
