Wilders Trial Set To Resume With Same Judges

A hastily convened panel of Dutch judges has ruled against Geert Wilders' petition to have Jan Moors removed as the presiding judge in his ongoing trial for the heinous crime of upsetting Muslims (which, in the Netherlands is punishable by up to one year in prison and a hefty fine).

Justice Frans Bauduin had been brought in to rule on the motion to have Moors disqualified from the case. In his ruling, Bauduin conceded that "The words used by the presiding judge [Jan Moors] in that last sentence were chosen unfortunately. They’ve given the requestor a wrong impression." At the same time, Bauduin insisted that, “There are no weighty indications that the judges have given the impression of being prejudiced.”

The sentence in question was a remark made by Moors in response to Wilders' announcement, through his attorney Bram Moszkowicz, that he would refuse to answer any questions from the judges at his trial. Moors' response to this was to state that he had heard that Wilders had a reputation for "avoiding a discussion ... it seems you’re doing that today as well.”

Sources: 

• Dutch Court Rejects Wilders Push to Change Judges at Muslim-Insult Trial, Bloomberg story by Jurjen van de Pol
• Dutch politician hate speech trial to resume, AP story by Toby Sterling
• Dutch hate speech case to resume, Al Jazeera