On Monday, a Dutch court convicted two Pakistani religio-political leaders of incitement for encouraging their followers to murder Geert Wilders, a far-right Dutch politician known for his anti-Islam stance.
Saad Rizvi, leader of Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan, and Dr. Muhammad Ashraf Jalali, head of the splinter group Tehreek-i-Labbaik Ya Rasool Allah, were found guilty of inciting violence against Wilders.
The trial, which took place in the Netherlands, was conducted in absentia as Pakistani authorities did not comply with requests to extradite the defendants.
Jalali, aged 56, received a 14-year prison sentence for explicitly urging his followers to kill Wilders, promising them rewards in the afterlife. Rizvi, aged 29, was sentenced to four years in prison for his similar calls to violence.
These convictions follow a series of legal actions against figures involved in incitement related to Wilders.
In September 2023, Pakistani cricketer Khalid Latif was sentenced to 12 years in prison for his role in inciting violence against Wilders after Wilders proposed a controversial competition featuring blasphemous caricatures.
The competition was eventually canceled amid widespread protests and death threats against Wilders, who has been under 24-hour state protection since 2004.
The impact of these calls to violence was evident when a Pakistani man was sentenced to 10 years in prison in 2019 for plotting Wilders’ assassination following the aborted caricature contest. The plan for the contest, criticized as provocatively antagonistic towards Muslims, stirred significant controversy.
Wilders, who leads the Freedom Party (PVV), which saw a substantial electoral victory in the Dutch parliamentary elections in November, expressed the personal toll the case has taken on him and his family.
