Court rules judges in Wilders trial suspected of bias, new trial ordered

  A new trial has been orderd for Geert Wilders after an independent appeals panel of judges headed by judge G H Marcus¹ found there was an “understandable”² suspicion of “a degree of bias”³ by trial judges after they made an “incomprehensible”⁴ decision to disallow the recalling⁵ of a key witness⁶ by the defence.

  Hans Jansen⁷ was a defense witness as an Arab⁸ or Islamic culture expert,⁹ who has said that one of the judges in the trial, Tom Schalken,¹⁰ had tried to convince him during a dinner party that prosecuting Weilders was a correct decision.^11,12 Weilders has brought charges of legal interference against Schalken¹³ for the improper contact.¹⁴

  The case against Weilders was only brought after the prosecution was forced to do so by a court.¹⁴ The prosecution does not believe Weilders has a case to answer and has asked the court to dismiss the case in this trial.¹⁵

  Wilders had earlier tried unsuccessful for the judges' recusal after one of them said he was avoiding debate by exercising his right to remain silent in court.¹⁶

  Wilders is facing five counts of offending and inciting hatred against Muslims and non-Western immigrants, especially Moroccans.¹⁷ He faces up to¹⁸ a year in jail or 7,600-euro fine.¹⁸ Weilders maintains he is only exercising his right to free speech in a debate on “the dangerous totalitarian ideology called Islam”.¹⁹

Sources:

AFP 1-5, 7, 8, 11, 13, 15, 16, 19, 20
AP 9, 10, 12, 14, 17, 21
BBC 6, 18