Pakistani Man Jailed for 10 Years Over Dutch Anti-Islam MP Murder Plot

Geert Wilders (Credit Image: Wouter Engler / Wikimedia)

A Dutch court sentenced a Pakistani man to 10 years behind bars on Monday for planning to assassinate anti-Islam politician Geert Wilders after the MP announced a cartoon competition depicting Prophet Muhammad (PBUH).

The man, identified as Junaid I. by local media, was arrested in August 2018 at a train station in The Hague after he posted a film on Facebook in which he said he wanted to “send Wilders to hell” and urged others to help.

Judges at The Hague’s district court found the 27-year-old man, who had travelled from France, guilty of “planning a murder with a terrorist motive” and “incitement to commit a terrorist deed”.

“The suspect more than once said that Wilders’ death would be a good deed,” said presiding judge Jan van Steen, who added four years in jail to the six years sought by the prosecution.

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The Facebook video was seen by more than 153,000 people and shared 14,000 times.

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