This conviction is part of the ongoing attempt by the Left to criminalize dissent from their globalist, multicultural agenda.
“Presiding Judge Hendrik Steenhuis said the court would not impose a sentence because the conviction was punishment enough for a democratically elected lawmaker.”
He and his friends among the political elites may find that backfiring on them.
“Anti-Islam Dutch MP Geert Wilders found guilty of hate speech,” by Senay Boztas, Telegraph, December 9, 2016:
Dutch far-right wing politician Geert Wilders was today found guilty of hate speech and inciting racial discrimination for leading a chant calling for “fewer, fewer” Moroccans in the Netherlands.
Presiding Judge Hendrik Steenhuis said the court would not impose a sentence because the conviction was punishment enough for a democratically elected lawmaker. Prosecutors had asked judges to fine him 5,000 euros ($5,300).
Wilders, head of the PVV Freedom Party, was not present to hear the judgement but his lawyer Geert-Jan Knoops immediately issued a statement to say that he would appeal.
The case was based on almost 6,500 official complaints after Wilders led a party rally during a local election campaign in The Hague in March 2014, asking whether there should be “more or fewer Moroccans in the Netherlands.”
The crowd’s response of “fewer, fewer”, was clearly organised, said a judge at the secure court at Schiphol Judicial Complex, near Amsterdam, ruling that Wilders had breached the boundaries of even a politician’s freedom of speech.
“It doesn’t matter that Wilders gave another message afterwards [saying he was referring only to criminal Moroccans and benefits claimants],” said the judge. “The message that evening from the podium, via the media, was loud and proud and did its work…The group was collectively dismissed as inferior to other Dutch people.”
Wilders said, in a statement in English posted on his YouTube channel, “I still cannot believe it, but I have been convicted because I asked a question about Moroccans. The Netherlands has become a sick country. The judge who convicted me [has] restricted the freedom of speech for millions of Dutch. I will never be silent. I am not a racist and neither are my voters.”
The politician did not attend the judgement or most of the process, apart from to give his “last word” at the end of hearings, also called it a “kangaroo court”, tweeting about the judges and hearings.
In court, the judge called his behaviour “unworthy” of a politician, and said there was no question that the case was political, as Wilders claimed.
The case, which has taken 20 months to reach a verdict, comes three months before Dutch general elections and Wilders’ PVV is currently leading in some polls….