A former Pakistan cricketer who was tried in absentia for inciting people to kill Dutch far-right leader Geert Wilders received a 12-year prison term on Monday from a Dutch court.
The court decided that remarks made by 37-year-old Khalid Latif should be viewed as threats, incitement to kill, and sedition.
Khalid Latif, who resides in Pakistan, hasn’t participated in the trial’s proceedings and hasn’t been imprisoned in the Netherlands.
According to the prosecution, there are no agreements between the Netherlands and Pakistan on extradition or judicial cooperation, and past requests for assistance in this case were not granted.
The court ruled that the prosecution had established that Latif had broadcast a video in 2018 offering a 3 million rupee ($21,000 at the time) bounty for the assassination of Wilders.
After Wilders launched a cartoon competition featuring caricatures of the Muslim Prophet Mohammad, there were violent protests against him in Pakistan at the time the video was released. Later, the contest was abandoned.
“The words used by the suspect are explicit: he promises to pay a considerable sum of money to anyone who engages in a specific act, namely the killing of Mr Wilders,” the Hague district court said.
“It is very likely that someone – anywhere in the world – would feel compelled to act on this call,” the court added in reference to the protests, where Dutch flags had been burned and others had also called for the killing of Wilders.
In Islam, depictions of the Prophet Muhammad are prohibited as an act of idolatry. Most Muslims find caricatures to be extremely offensive.
Although he has never been in government, Wilders, 60, is one of Europe’s most well-known far-right figures and has played a significant role in influencing the immigration debate in the Netherlands over the past 20 years.
The biggest opposition party in the Dutch parliament is His Freedom Party (PVV), which is the third-largest party overall. Since 2004, Wilders has always had police protection.
