A Partial Victory for Geert Wilders

There is good news-bad news today out of the Netherlands. Dutch politician Geert Wilders had one of his convictions overturned by an appellate court while the other charge stood. These came out of Wilders' question to an audience in 2014 whether they wanted to see more Moroccans or fewer Moroccans in the Netherlands.

Law professor Paul Cliteur, who testified in Wilders' trial in his defense, has the news in the Dagelijkse Standaard. The below article is translated by Fousesquawk.


https://www.dagelijksestandaard.nl/2020/09/column-paul-cliteur-de-terugtrekkende-beweging-van-het-hof-in-de-zaak-wilders/


Paul Cliteur Column: The retreating move of the court in the Wilders case
-Paul Cliteur, September 4, 2020

This afternoon, the Court of Appeals in the Hague convicted Geert Wilders for group insult for the "Less Moroccans" statement (art. 137c Sr). He was acquitted of the attempts by the Public Prosecutor to convict him for incitement to hate or discrimination (art. 137d Sr).

Though it is naturally a disappointment that Wilders was not cleared of all charges, it is nevertheless a small success that now suddenly, the incitement to discrimination on grounds of race has disappeared. That takes a bit of the sting out of the conviction because now only the group insult on basis of race remains.

It is quite a backward move that the (Appeals) Court is making compared to the standpoint of the (original) court. One (step) further, the Supreme Court, and the group insult will also die. That is not imaginary because the Supreme Court will, hopefully, see clearly that Moroccans are not a race, rather a nationality. No Moroccan race, no Moroccan ethnicity, just a nationality. And the legislator has explicitly not included that in the law. Thus, the zealots for stretching the concept of race can claim what they want, but, in doing so, they violate the principle of legality and with it, the rule of law.

What remains a problem is that the administrative elite,for one puzzling reason or another, is obsessed with labeling one group a "victim" while someone who spends the rest of their life on a jihadist death list can count on a lot less compassion. 

Prof. Paul Cliteur is a professor in Leiden, member of the first chamber (Senate-Parliament) with Forum for Democracy, and author of, among others, "The State vs Wilders". 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Here is a video of Cliteur's testimony before the court. It has English sub-titles (not by Fousesquawk).