PREVIEW: Muslim critic Geert Wilders goes on trial in Netherlands

Jan 19, 2010, 14:42 GMT

Amsterdam - Did Islam critic Geert Wilders violate Dutch law by calling the Koran a 'fascist book' and Islam a 'backward culture?'

This is the question an Amsterdam court will have to answer when the leader of the Freedom Party PVV goes on trial Wednesday.

Wilders, a member of parliament, faces charges of discriminating against a group and inciting people to hatred.

Prosecutors claim his 16-minute internet video Fitna, released in March 2008, incites people to hatred against Muslims. The film also warns against the spread of radical Islam and the alleged 'Islamization' of the Netherlands.

Wilders claims the trial is 'political' and that he is the victim of a 'witch hunt.'

The parliamentarian triggered dozens of complaints to police in 2006, following statements he made about Islam to the media. He repeatedly called Islam a 'backward' culture and the Koran a 'fascist book that incites people to violence'

The public prosecutor initially found he could not be charged, as the statements about Islam and the Koran were made in the context of a political debate.

According European Court of Human Rights rulings, the prosecutor said, maximum freedom of expression had top priority in a public debate.

But in January 2008 top attorney Gerard Spong filed a complaint against Wilders on behalf of a group of students, arguing the lawmaker had incited people to hatred with his remarks.

Among other things, they referred to statements Wilders had made to the media in which he compared the Muslim Holy Scripture to Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf.

An Amsterdam court subsequently determined that because of the extreme nature of the remarks and the fact he Wilders repeated them consistently in the public realm, a court would have to test whether or not the politician had violated the law.

In September, the public prosecutor expanded the indictment to include a count of discriminating against a group. An attempt by Wilders' lawyer Bram Moskowicz to have that charge dropped failed last week.

The maximum sentence for each offence is one year imprisonment, or, if found guilty on both counts, a combined 16 months. The maximum fine is 10,000 euros (14,369 dollars).

Almost 6 per cent of the Netherlands' 16.5 million inhabitants are Muslim, most of them with Turkish or Moroccan roots. The percentage is higher in big cities, reaching 30 per cent in some suburbs.