Trial of Dutch anti-Islam MP Geert Wilders opens

An Amsterdam court rejected a claim by far right leader Geert Wilders that an earlier court decision was biased and that hate speech charges against him should be dropped."The request is denied," said Judge Marcel van Oosten, during a hearing broadcast on the Internet by Dutch public television. "The trial must go on."Wilders, 47, faces five counts of giving offence to Muslims and of inciting hatred against Muslims and people of non-Western immigrant origin, particularly Moroccans.

A defence lawyer rejected accusations of hate speech and xenophobia against Dutch anti-Islam MP Geert Wilders on Tuesday, urging judges not to "shoot the messenger"."Wilders makes the hatred of others visible," the politician's lawyer Bram Moszkowicz told judges of the Amsterdam district court on the first day of defence pleadings broadcast live via the Internet."Don't shoot the messenger," the lawyer said, arguing that the right to freedom of speech covered Wilders's criticism of the Islamic religion, which the politician describes as "violent".

A gunman who tried to shoot a Danish writer and prominent critic of Islam missed and fled after a scuffle with his intended victim. Lars Hedegaard, who heads a group that claims press freedom is under threat from Islam, said he was shaken but not physically injured in the attack at his Copenhagen home. Police said they were searching for the suspect, whom they described as a “foreign” man aged 20-25.

Controversial Dutch right-winger Geert Wilders is cleared of inciting hatred against Muslims, after his comments in a film about Islam are ruled "denigrating," not illegal.

Emile Roeme, a socialist running on an anti-Brussels, anti-austerity plan is likely to become the next prime minister of the Netherlands. On the extreme right, populist Geert Wilders wants the Netherlands to withdraw from the eurozone completely. The centrists who support the nannyzone feel squeezed in the middle, and their days appear numbered.

The Netherlands has been one of the staunchest proponents of forced austerity on Greece. However, now that Brussels has demanded the Netherlands hit its fiscal targets, Dutch politicians can't get the task done and the government is poised to collapse. New elections coming up. The Washington Post reports Dutch prime minister says government austerity talks collapse

An Amsterdam court Thursday acquitted Dutch far-right lawmaker Geert Wilders on charges of hate speech and discrimination for statements he made attacking Islam."You are being acquitted on all the charges that were put against you," Judge Marcel van Oosten told Wilders."The bench finds that your statements are acceptable within the context of the public debate," Judge van Oosten told Wilders, 47, who has been on trial in the Amsterdam regional court since last October.