Dutch News reports:
The public prosecution department on Friday afternoon stated that Geert Wilders is not guilty of discriminating against Muslims. Earlier on Friday it announced he should also be found not guilty of inciting hatred.
Prosecutors Birgit van Roessel and Paul Velleman reached their conclusions after a careful reading of interviews with and articles by the anti-Islam politician and a viewing of his anti-Koran film Fitna.
They said comments about banning the Koran can be discriminatory, but because Wilders wants to pursue a ban on democratic lines, there is no question of incitement to discrimination ‘as laid down in law’.
On the comparison of the Koran with Mein Kampf, the prosecutors said the comparison was ‘crude but that did not make it punishable’.
Dealing earlier on Friday with incitement to hatred, Van Roessel and Velleman said some comments could incite hatred against Muslims if taken out of context, but if the complete text is considered, it can be seen that Wilders is against the growing influence of Islam and not against Muslims per sé.
On Tuesday, the prosecutors said the MP should not be found guilty of group insult.
The public prosecution department was forced to take the case by the high court after anti-racism campaigners protested at its refusal to prosecute Wilders.
Good news, not just for what was once the Dutch Republic, but for liberty everywhere.
UPDATE: On PajamasMedia, Leon de Winter clarifies an oddity of the Dutch justice system: prosecutors have recommended that Wilders be acquitted, and though it is highly improbable, it is still technically within the court’s discretion to convict.
Good news, on balance.
Here's the thing. When those of us "little people" in the trenches see what happens to Geert Wilders and Mark Steyn, not to mention Molly Norris and Terry Jones (the Florida Koran non-burner), we think twice, and more before exercising our free speech rights to criticize Islam.
And that's how Sharia creeps in. A little bit at a time, people fear standing up, so they knuckle under.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseHallelujah. A victory for free speech -- most needed today!
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseWhen do the members of the Dutch High Court face THEIR prosecutions for inciting against liberty?
Kudos to Iowa Congressman Steve King for being the first public official of whom I am aware to propose impeachment for judges who violate their oaths.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseBad news, for everyone.
They're just going to bring charges against the next (less politically powerful) person who does the same thing, because they don't need a conviction to win. Their purpose is to strangle opinions they dislike, and it worked. Not guilty + no funding + no press coverage = jail, and everyone got the message - including the witch-hunters in such bastions of liberty as France (where a cartoonist was sent to jail for drawing de Gaulle with a big nose).
Best result: guilty on all counts, and both the conviction and the entire law trashed on appeal as (their equivalent of) unconstitutional, thus preventing prosecutorial misuse of public funds for political purposes.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThe Prosecutors found them not guilty?!
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseQualified good news only, or maybe good news with an asterisk. The fact that government liberty-suppressing apparatchiks got to rule on the issue, is a loss. The only clean win would have been for them to decide that they had no business entertaining the complaint.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseGood news from a shameful circumstance...
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseIn a way, yes, but it would be even better news if Wilders declared that he was renouncing his views on Koran-banning because he had come to realize that they were antithetical to liberty. Somehow, that doesn't seem likely, and the odds are that he'll go on advocating his preposterous views (which he has the right to do, of course, but that doesn't make them any less preposterous).
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseExcellent news. Now we need courageous American politicians to stand up against Islam and expose it to the light.
It's about time some American leader stands up against the propaganda that Islam is "the religion of peace".
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI'm glad he wins, but sad that it got to this point.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abusepanic is right, this is the coward's way to preserve a bad law - hammer people in private but refuse to enforce it when everyone is watching. Wilders has already been punished by bringing the malicious prosecution. Holland is less free than if he'd been convicted and something had to be done about the Netherland's oppressive laws (God only knows what the Dutch think).
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseUnfortunately, many Dutch citizens can't stand Geert Wilders and think it was right for him to be prosecuted.
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