Two Pakistani religious leaders, Saad Rizvi and Muhammad Ashraf Asif Jalali, were convicted in absentia by a Dutch court on Monday for issuing death threats against Geert Wilders, the leader of the Party for Freedom, known for his anti-Islamic views.
Wilders’ party won the Netherlands’ general election last year.
Neither Rizvi nor Jalali was present during the hearing, as both are believed to be in Pakistan, a country that has no extradition agreement with the Netherlands. Jalali was convicted of attempting to incite the murder of Wilders with terrorist intent and received a 14-year prison sentence.
Saad Rizvi, the leader of Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP), was sentenced to four years for incitement to murder and threats against Wilders. The court determined that Rizvi’s social media post did not meet the threshold for terrorism.
These are not the first convictions of Pakistanis in the Netherlands for threats against Wilders. Last year, former cricketer Khalid Latif was sentenced to 12 years in prison for offering a reward for Wilders’ death, though he too remains outside Dutch custody. In 2019, another Pakistani man was sentenced to 10 years for plotting an attack on Wilders, who is sometimes referred to as the Dutch Donald Trump.
