A court in the Netherlands has sentenced a Pakistani man to 10 years in prison for planning to assassinate anti-Islam politician Geert Wilders for his plans to hold a contest of blasphemous caricatures of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (PBUH).
Dutch media have identified the man as Junaid I, who was arrested in August 2018 at a train station in The Hague. Junaid had posted a film on Facebook in which he stated that he wanted to ‘send Wilders to hell’ and urged others to aid him.
Judges at The Hague’s district court found the 27-year-old guilty of ‘planning a murder with a terrorist motive’ and ‘incitement to commit a terrorist deed’.
The judge presiding over the hearing, Jan Van Steen, said that the suspect had stated more than once that Wilders’s death would be a good deed.
Van Steen further stated that the suspect wanted to commit the murder in the parliament, the heart of Dutch democracy.
He added, “The court is alarmed that the suspect… declared that this case will boost his image in Pakistan.”
The suspect denied any terror-related motives and stated during his trial that he was ‘peace-loving’ and had only came to the Netherlands to protest against Wilders’ cartoon competition.
Following threats to his life, far-right politician Geert Wilders had cancelled his plans to stage the cartoon competition.