Mohammed B. will not be called as witness- - - - - - - - -
On Wednesday the court in Amsterdam assigned three of the eighteen witnesses that Geert Wilders had requested. The law experts he had requested and the radical Muslims he wanted to call as experience witnesses, including Mohammed B., have been rejected by the court. However, three of the eight Islamic experts will be heard by the judge.
The PVV leader shook his head while he was listening to the president of the court and once loudly cleared his throat. Visibly unhappy, he left the courtroom.
The court found that the politician, who is accused among other things of sowing hatred and incitement to discrimination, will have sufficient opportunity at the trial to indicate with which experts on Islam he agrees and with which he doesn’t. Additionally, the Public Prosecutor (OM) during the preparations for the trial received a report by three experts [presumably the government “report” on extremism by Bob de Graaff, Hans Moors and Jaap van Donselaar]. That report will be part of the proceedings.
The court in Amsterdam finds itself competent to direct the criminal proceedings against PVV leader Geert Wilders. This is what the court made known on Wednesday during the second session. It is unknown when the case will resume. For the trial the court estimates it needs to have five session days.
The judges [J.W. Moors* (chair), Mrs. J.M.J. Lommen-van Alphen and M.M. van der Nat], also found that the Public Prosecutor has jurisdiction to prosecute the politician, since Wilders has no immunity for what he says outside of parliament.
* I have not yet checked whether he is related to H. Moors of the radicalization report. — VH
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