A Pakistani religious leader is tried in his absence for allegedly threatening Geert Wilders

SCHIPHOL, Netherlands (AP) — Prosecutors demanded a 14-year sentence Monday for a Pakistani Muslim leader accused of inciting the murder of anti-Islam lawmaker Geert Wilders, the leader of the party that won last year’s general election in the Netherlands.

Muhammad Ashraf Asif Jalali did not appear for trial at a closely guarded courtroom near Amsterdam as prosecutors accused him of abusing his position as a religious leader to call on followers to hang or behead Wilders.

In a second case, prosecutors sought a six-year sentence against a second Pakistani man, Saad Rizvi, who leads the radical Islamist Tehreek-e-Labaik Pakistan, or TLP, for incitement or threatening a terrorist crime against Wilders. Rizvi also did not show up for his trial.

Neither of the men is believed to be in the country, and Pakistan has no extradition agreement with the Netherlands. Prosecutors said in a statement that requests they sent to Pakistani authorities seeking legal assistance to serve subpoenas on the two men were not executed.

They are the latest Dutch trials for Muslims who have threatened Wilders’ life, forcing him to live under around-the-clock police protection for nearly 20 years because of his outspoken criticism of Islam.

Last year, a former Pakistani cricketer, Khalid Latif, was sentenced to 12 years in prison over allegations that he had offered a reward for the death of Wilders. Latif also did not appear for trial. In 2019, a Pakistani man was arrested in the Netherlands, convicted and sentenced to 10 years for preparing a terrorist attack on Wilders, who is sometimes called the Dutch Donald Trump.

In a statement to the court, Wilders told judges of the impact of the threats on his life, that has been lived under intense security since 2004. Two armed military police sat in court throughout the brief trial.

“Every day you get up and leave for work in armored cars, often with sirens on, and you are always aware somewhere in the back of your mind that this could be your last day,” Wilders told the court.

“I’m 60 now, I haven’t been free since I was 40,” he added.

While Jalali and Rizvi are not likely to ever serve a sentence if convicted, Wilders said he hoped the case would send a message to him and the world that issuing death threats would not be accepted.

A prosecutor, who asked not to be identified for security reasons, told judges in the Dutch court that threats began to be aired on social media after Wilders’ announcement that he was organizing a competition for cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad in 2018. The planned contest sparked angry protests in Pakistan and elsewhere in the Muslim world in 2018.

Physical depictions of the prophet are forbidden in Islam and deeply offensive to Muslims.

In Pakistan, Rizvi’s TLP denounced the Dutch case, saying that instead of trying the two clerics the court should have sentenced Wilders.

“Tehreek-e-Labaik Pakistan puts this question to the Dutch court: Whether it was not Geert Wilders who should have been punished for insulting Islam’s Prophet Muhammad,” TLP said in a statement.

“It is not freedom of expression. This is called Islamophobia, which is being done with a plan,” the party said.

TLP gained prominence after campaigning on the single issue of defending the country’s blasphemy law, which calls for the death penalty for anyone who insults Islam.

Wilders, who canceled the cartoon competition after angry reactions in Muslim nations, told the three-judge panel he has paid a high price for his actions, which he cast as defending freedom of expression.

Wilders’ comments in the past have also fallen foul of Dutch law. An appeals court in 2020 upheld his conviction for insulting Moroccans in an election speech in 2014. He was not given a punishment, with a judge saying that Wilders had already “paid a high price for expressing his opinion,” a reference to the tight security the lawmaker lives under.

Verdicts in both trials were scheduled for Sept. 9.

___

Associated Press writer Munir Ahmed in Islamabad contributed.