Prosecutors in The Netherlands want to put on trial two Pakistani nationals for incitement to murder anti-Islam MP Geert Wilders, and have sought legal help from Islamabad since they are based there.
NDTV reports that last September Pakistani cricketer Khalid Latif was sentenced to 12 years in jail for urging people to murder Wilders after the firebrand MP sought to arrange a competition for cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad.
The two Pakistanis now under prosecution are a 55-year-old religious leader and a 29-year-old political leader “who have called upon their following to murder a Dutch member of parliament. This was done both during meetings and on social media through video and text messages,” the prosecutors said.
The religious leader apparently told his followers that they would be rewarded in the afterlife if they murdered Wilders, while the political leader said since Latif’s conviction, “it was up to his own followers to carry out the task.”
The two men are expected to go on trial on Sept 2 at a secure courthouse near Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport. Dutch authorities have asked Islamabad for legal help to question the suspects and serve summonses to appear in court.
But The Netherlands has no treaty with Pakistan for mutual legal assistance and it seems unlikely either of the men will ever appear before a Dutch court.
Wilders hoped the two men “would be extradited, convicted and jailed,” and he had even posted their names on his X account. But AFP said it was not possible for the agency to independently verify the names.
Wilders was forced to cancel his Prophet cartoon contest after being inundated with death threats. Many in the country criticised his cartoon plan as needlessly provoking the Muslims. In fact, Wilders has been under police protection since 2004.
