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DEFIANT DUTCH ANTI-Islam politician Geert Wilders said he will refuse to attend his hate speech trial next week, dubbing it a travesty aimed at silencing him.
The trial opens on Monday before a three-judge bench with the far-right politician facing charges of insulting a racial group and inciting racial hatred for comments he made about Moroccans living in the Netherlands.
“It is my right and my duty as a politician to speak about the problems in our country,” Wilders said in a statement , dubbing the case “a political trial, in which I refuse to cooperate”.
It comes as opinion polls have shown his far-right Freedom Party (PVV) doing well ahead of March elections.
After riding high amid the migrant crisis, the party is now polling neck-and-neck with Prime Minister Mark Rutte’s Liberals each predicted to win between 25 to 29 seats in the 150-seat parliament.
Set to last until 25 November , the trial focuses on a comment made at a March 2014 rally when Wilders asked supporters if they wanted “fewer or more Moroccans in your city and in the Netherlands?”
When the crowd shouted back “Fewer! Fewer!” Wilders answered: “We’re going to organise that.”
It is the second such trial for the politician who was acquitted on similar charges in 2011.
Wilders said this afternoon he would leave his defence in the hands of his lawyer Geert-Jan Knoops and instead “go to work” in the parliament in The Hague.
The court confirmed in a statement that the trial would go ahead, adding like any defendant, Wilders had the right not to appear.
While the court can force someone to turn up, “it is not known whether it will do so in this case,” it added.
Judges earlier this month dismissed arguments by Wilders’ lawyers that the trial was “politically motivated” adding they did not believe it will impact the PVV’s election campaign.
Politicians “are granted broad freedoms of expression because of their official position,” the judges ruled last month.
“Precisely therefore politicians have an important role to avoid feeding intolerance by making these kind of public statements.”
Wilders hit back saying “it is a travesty that I have to stand trial because I spoke about fewer Moroccans.”
“Millions of Dutch citizens want fewer Moroccans,” he claimed.
“Not because they despise all Moroccans or want all Moroccans out of the country, but because they are sick and tired of the nuisance and terror caused by so many Moroccans.”
Wilders drew flak when he unveiled his party’s controversial election programme saying he would confiscate Korans and close mosques if he wins the elections.
He is often described as “the most heavily guarded man” in The Netherlands and the trial is taking place in a high-security courthouse in Schiphol.
His name has “appeared on hit-lists drawn up by Al-Qaeda, the Taliban and the Islamic State group”, according to his lawyer.
If found guilty, Wilders could face up to two years in jail or a fine of more than 20,000 euros ($22,000).
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But if Apple developed a car would it have windows??!
Windows would be called i-screens
Hope they use those Tesla engineers to create a phone battery that lasts more than 8 hours first.
I recently got two full days from my iPhone 6′s battery.
It was turned off
I hope they don’t use apple maps
Use your iphone to open your car,
Great, so now when someone robs your phone they get your car too…..
How do you “rob” a phone? Cut it open and steal the components?
I’ll get your coat Jake.
As long as you don’t rob it. There is stuff in the pockets!
We should never invent anything new in case it gets stolen.
Someone stole the Internet once.
People will steal anything.
“They” steal everything that’s not nailed down, and if it’s nailed down, “they” steal the nails as well
If Google make their own car they could call it Google Drive…
;D
They could make it a van and stuff it full of documents.
That wasn’t funny. Had to thumb it down myself.
Well at least you had the good sense to thumb it down.
OMG… What a dreadful thought. I honestly can’t think of anything worse for more reasons than I can express. I can see Apple suing Ford for also having a vehicle with a wheel at each corner and Toyota for having Glass in the windows… And can you imagine an iCar that will only let you drive it to where Apple thinks you should go, only lets you put Apple fuel in it, and force feeds you scrappy U2 music at random… And don’t even get get me started on the truly woeful navigation system it will all run on…. We’re doomed.
fantastic company
Used to be but as they discovered before. No jobs no chance
The iCar chooses your destination for you from a list of Apple-approved destinations…
Someone should tell apple it is illegal to touch your phone whilst driving.
So on one hand we have a company that released all of its patents in order to facilitate the development of this technology, and on the other we have a company that aggressively buys up patent holding companies in order to bring massive lawsuits against its competitors in order the tighten it’s stranglehold on the market. Oh yeah. Super news…
the begrudgary here is top notch.
I was at the launch of the original iPod in ireland and listened to a lot of people in the room laugh afterwards and saying that apple shouldn’t get involved in the personal entertainment business etc. I can’t say that I was overly impressed with the iPod originally but it has changed the playing field massively.
but anyway ..the same predictable jokes about apple / android / samsung / microsoft must just get funnier the more the same people post them on every tech related story.
The Floor count of the United Nations Building.
Let them waste millions on the driverless cars.
Stupid idea. Literally accidents waiting to happen. Then they get sued.
Be better off focusing on jet packs instead.
Well I hope they don’t allow the car version of the OS to get as bloated and slow as iOS after each release.
Very frustrating on an iPad, but a potentially lethal irritation in a car.
Apple using Tesla people to try out their software in cars. Only a matter of time before they do “iCars”. Before iPhone they tested out iTunes on Motorola phones and that was a success , hence iPhone.
have your say