The Dutch government says it will pursue the extradition of two Pakistani men at a meeting of the UN General Assembly in New York next week after they were convicted in absentia in the Netherlands on Monday of incitement to kill far-right leader Geert Wilders.
In a joint briefing on Tuesday, the departments of foreign affairs and of justice said that following the verdicts there had been “intensive discussions” about the importance of the case and how to proceed, given the refusal of the Pakistani government to engage diplomatically.
Mr Wilders – whose Freedom Party is the largest in the Netherlands’ four party coalition government – has been living under round-the-clock police protection for 20 years because of his anti-Islam views and his campaign to have the Koran banned.
At a high-security courthouse near Schiphol airport, judges from The Hague on Monday sentenced religious leader Muhammed Ashraf Jalali (56) to 14 years in jail for incitement and threats to murder with terrorist intent.
Prosecutors said Jalali had repeatedly called on supporters to behead or hang Mr Wilders (51) – who was in court for the sentencing.
The second defendant, 29-year-old Saad Hussain Rizvi, a leader of the extreme Islamist party, Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan, was sentenced to four years, also for incitement and threats to murder.
Rizvi was found not guilty of membership of a terrorist organisation.
Mr Wilders took the witness stand briefly last week to tell the court about the impact the threats had had on him and his wife, Krisztina Marfai, whom he married in 1992, long before he entered parliament.
“In 2004, I was picked up from my home in Venlo by police officers armed with machine guns, and I have not been back since,” he told the judges.
“Since then, my wife and I have lived in safe houses, prisons, army barracks and police stations to try to stay secure.”
This is not the first time the Netherlands has tried accused persons from outside the country for threats against the Freedom Party leader.
Last year, a former Pakistani cricketer, Khalid Latif, was sentenced in absentia to 12 years for posting a video on YouTube promising a “reward” of 3 million rupees (about €10,000) to anyone who killed Mr Wilders and filmed the killing for posting on social media.
In 2019, a Pakistani man living in the Netherlands, named in court only as “Junaid I”, received a 10-year sentence for plotting an attack that was prevented by his arrest.
[ New Dutch government to stop funding shelters for failed asylum seekersOpens in new window ]
Relations between the Netherlands and Pakistan are not cordial. In a joint briefing, the Dutch departments of foreign affairs and of justice said all attempts to have suspects extradited from Pakistan had been fruitless – which was why the issue would be raised at the UN.
- Sign up for push alerts and have the best news, analysis and comment delivered directly to your phone
- Join The Irish Times on WhatsApp and stay up to date
- Listen to our Inside Politics podcast for the best political chat and analysis
