(NL Times) The appeal in the hate speech case against PVV leader Geert Wilders will continue. The court in The Hague saw no reason to declare the public prosecutor inadmissible, as Wilders had requested. The court will, however, allow the defense to call former Justice Minister Ivo Opstelten, former head of the Public Prosecution Service Herman Bolhaar and a number of senior officials to testify as witnesses, NOS reports.
According to Wilders, Opstelten personally interfered with the public prosecutor’s decision to prosecute him.
Wilders is on trial for statements he made about Moroccans while campaigning in The Hague in 2014. Wilders said that The Hague should be a city with fewer problems and, if possible, fewer Moroccans. The PVV leader also asked a cafe full of his followers whether they want more or fewer Moroccans in The Hague and the Netherlands, to which they responded by chanting “fewer, fewer, fewer.” Wilders then said he would arrange that.
