Dutch court convicts Saad Rizvi, Ashraf Jalali for incitement to violence against Geert Wilders

A Dutch court on Monday convicted Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan chief Saad Rizvi and the chief of breakaway faction Tehreek-i-Labbaik Ya Rasool Allah Dr Muhammad Ashraf Jalali on charges of incitement for urging their followers to murder far-right and anti-Islam leader Geert Wilders.

The two men stood trial in absentia on Monday at a high-security court in the Netherlands last week, as Pakistan did not force the men to appear in court as requested.

Jalali, a 56-year-old religious leader, was handed a 14-year sentence for calling on his followers to kill Wilders and promising they would be “rewarded in the afterlife.”

Rizvi, 29, was sentenced to four years after urging followers to kill Wilders after Pakistani cricketer Khalid Latif was sentenced for incitement to murder him.

In September 2023, judges sentenced Latif to 12 years behind bars for incitement to murder Wilders after the firebrand lawmaker sought to arrange a competition for blasphemous caricatures.

Wilders cancelled the caricature contest after protests broke out in Pakistan and he was inundated with death threats. He has been under 24-hour state protection since 2004.

The call to kill Wilders appeared to resonate, as a Pakistani man was sentenced to 10 years in prison in 2019 for plotting his assassination in the wake of the cancelled contest.

In the Netherlands, the plan for the contest was widely criticised as needlessly antagonising Muslims.

“This case has had a huge impact on me and my family,” Wilders told the court last week. Wilders’ PVV (Freedom Party) was the big winner in the Dutch parliamentary elections in November.