Wednesday, January 20, 2010

“It Is Becoming Frightening Now…”

On January 20, 2010, the trial of Dutch politician Geert Wilders began in Amsterdam. The charges against him are insulting Muslims, discrimination against Muslims, and incitement to hatred.

This is the first subtitled video of the Wilders trial to come through the pipeline. Many thanks to our Flemish correspondent VH and Vlad Tepes for their prompt work in translating and subtitling it.


The full transcript of this news story is below the jump.
- - - - - - - - -
 Wilders Trial has begun
00:00 Geert Wilders as a suspect in the Amsterdam Court.
00:04 At the end of the morning he hears the charges, whereby he has to hear read out some of his own statements.
00:09 Prosecutor Paul Velleman:
00:11 A Moderate Islam does not exist. It does not exist because…
00:14 … there is no distinction between good Islam and bad Islam.
00:18 There is Islam, and that is it. And Islam is the Quran and nothing but the Quran.
00:26 And the Quran is the Mein Kampf of a religion that seeks to eliminate others…
00:32 …that calls those others — non-Muslims — infidel dogs.
00:36 Wilders is suspected of discrimination and incitement to hatred.
00:40 His lawyer, Bram Moszkovicz, earlier had let it be known that he objects to this charge.
00:45 He wants this to be rejected in its entirety, or partially.
00:50 Outside this morning, were hundreds of protesters supporting Wilders…
 [sign reads: “Leftist Elite +Islam = Dictatorship”]
00:55 …to draw attention to freedom of expression.
00:57 In the Netherlands we value freedom of speech very highly…
01:01 …and I think a whole lot must happen before that could be affected..
01:03 I am 64 years old, and it is the first time I have gone to demonstrate, because it is becoming frightening now…
01:07 …that even I must think to myself: would I dare to speak out that I am for the PVV of Geert Wilders?
01:13 I find that frightening, I was shocked of that myself, that is why I am here.
01:22 Meanwhile, most protesters have left, while inside the trial continues.

3 comments:

Chechar said...

Here there is another video in English.

heroyalwhyness said...

chechar's link is to "Russia Today" - talk about irony!

Many thanks to all who bring these important visuals to GoV with english translation!

Go Geert!!

costin said...

scary indeed, and probably this is what would have happen also to Pim Fortuyn were it not for that brainless vegan to shoot him a few days before he became Minister President. probably...

Baron, you are doing an imense service to freedom of speech and Europe with your reports!