In a landmark case, the Netherlands has sentenced two Pakistani nationals to prison for calling on their supporters to kill Dutch populist leader Geert Wilders.
A court in The Hague sentenced 56-year-old imam Mohammed Ashraf Asif Jalali to 14 years in prison for issuing a fatwa (religious decree) death warrant for the head of Geert Wilders, leader of the Party for Freedom (PVV) and now the main power behind the Dutch government, for his role in promoting a cartoon contest that featured caricatures of Mohammed.
The court found that Jalali called for the killing of populist politicians in English to increase the chances of his fatwa being accepted internationally. The court ruled that the call was made with terrorism intent and that Jalali's supporters were likely to have taken the demand seriously, Dutch broadcaster NOS reported. Reports.
Meanwhile, the court also sentenced 29-year-old Saad Hussain Rizvi, a leader of the Islamic extremist group Tehreek-e-Labaik Pakistan (TLP), to four years in prison for making death threats against Wilders. Prosecutors had sought a six-year sentence for the TLP leader, but Rizvi was partially acquitted because his words were not deemed to have had terrorist intent.
Despite the verdict, it is unclear whether the men will actually be brought to trial given that they both live in Pakistan, with which the Netherlands has no extradition treaty, but Wilders has called for international arrest warrants to be issued for the two Islamists.
Still, the politician described the verdict as a “complete victory”, adding: “I hope that the Dutch government will also do everything in its power to ensure that those involved serve out their sentences.”
Regardless of whether Jilali and Rizvi end up in prison, Wilders said the decision was “an important signal internationally that issuing fatwas against members of parliament will not go unpunished.”
Speaking exclusively to Breitbart London ahead of his trial, Wilders said he and his wife had been forced to “live in various safe houses” and under round-the-clock guard since receiving death threats from Muslims nearly 20 years ago.
“We have lost our freedom and privacy. Wherever we go, we are always surrounded by bodyguards,” he wrote. But the PVV leader has not succumbed to such pressure and continues to serve as one of the leading critics of radical Islam in Europe.
“I have always been a strong advocate of freedom of speech, which is the foundation of a free society and a functioning democracy. I will never be silenced. Fatwas, death threats, being on the Taliban and ISIS death lists – nothing will stop me from speaking the inconvenient truth,” Wilders wrote in Breitbart.
While this week's trial marks the first time an imam has been convicted for issuing a fatwa, it is not the first time that Wilders has been convicted of Muslim violence against him.
For example, another Pakistani, Junaid Iqbal, Sentenced He was sentenced to 10 years in prison for plotting a terrorist attack to “send Dog Wilders to hell.”
In 2023, former Pakistan national cricket team captain Khalid Latif was sentenced to 12 years in prison for putting a bounty on the head of a PVV leader, but he has so far not faced justice as he is being protected from prison by Pakistan.
