The Public Prosecution Service would probably have loved to see that the Dutch criminal case against 37-year-old former Pakistani cricketer Khalid Latif would have been broadcast live on all Pakistani channels on Tuesday. For prevention.
The trial in absentia of the suspect who in August 2018 via social media promised a reward of three million Pakistani rupees (at the time 21,989 euros) to the person who would manage to defeat MP Geert Wilders, sometimes seemed mainly intended for domestic Pakistani consumption. Stop threatening the Dutch, was the message.
Read also: In Pakistan, blasphemy is a matter of life or death – also for the former cricketer who wanted Geert Wilders killed
Victim statement
Wilders has been receiving many death threats for years and they often come from Pakistan, said public prosecutor Fridolijn Kuipers. Partly to discourage possible future foreign threateners of Dutch representatives, she demanded a prison sentence of twelve years against Latif as “very severe punishment”.
It was in accordance with the desire that Wilders previously expressed in a victim impact statement in court. The PVV party leader says he receives a thousand threats every year. They often come from abroad and that means “in 99.99 percent of cases” that there will be no prosecution because the Public Prosecution Service says it cannot identify suspects. Wilders thanked the Public Prosecution Service for having succeeded. He asked the court to send “a strong signal”. “Free speech should not be pruned,” said Wilders.
In May 2018, Wilders announced a cartoon competition and called for drawings of the Prophet Mohammed to be submitted. It led to a lot of commotion, especially in Pakistan, about the action, which was seen as blasphemy. According to the Public Prosecution Service, Latif posted a video on Facebook in which he promises a reward to those who manage to kill “the person who planned this game, making offensive drawings”. Police investigation of the images shows, according to the police, that Latif is indeed the threat. His visible puffiness, skin fold at nose, teeth and haircut are recognized.
The public prosecutor says it is striking that the suspect has never denied the publicly known accusations against him. However, the court failed to hear the suspect. Requests for legal assistance to Pakistan, with which the Netherlands has no judicial cooperation treaty, were not answered. Calling in the Pakistani ambassador in the Netherlands did not help and attempts by the Dutch ambassador in Pakistan to arrange something also had no effect whatsoever.
Internationally reported
The suspect himself must have been aware of his upcoming trial in the Netherlands, the court concluded. He had spoken to a French news agency about the criminal case. Partly for this reason, the trial was able to continue despite Latif’s absence. According to the court, there is “due administration of justice within a reasonable time”.
In her closing letter, the public prosecutor pointed out that a successful assassination attempt on Wilders had not only meant “irreparable suffering” for the relatives. It would also have been “an attack on the rule of law”. According to the prosecutor, Wilders’ violent death would have shocked “the whole of the Netherlands and the world”. “Then perhaps many more politicians would no longer dare to do their job or would no longer dare to participate freely in the political debate.”
It is unclear whether the Hague requisitorial will receive much attention in Pakistan. There was not a Pakistani journalist to be seen at the court in The Hague, who was sitting in the judicial complex at Schiphol for security reasons.
The intended victim specifically addressed the absent suspect. “As long as I live and breathe, you won’t stop me. Your call is abject. I keep speaking the truth. Freedom of thought and speech is all I have left and no one can take that away from me. I will always keep going,” said Wilders.
In the event of a conviction, Latif will be internationally recognized as someone who must serve a sentence in the Netherlands. “He can then no longer leave Pakistan with peace of mind,” said a spokesperson for the Public Prosecution Service.
The court will rule on September 11.