A Dutch court on Monday rejected right-wing anti-Islam MP Geert Wilders' bid for the withdrawal of a panel of judges chosen to try him for hate speech. "The request for recusal is denied," A.J. van der Meer, the presiding judge of an independent panel set up to hear Wilders' application, said at a hearing broadcast via the Internet.
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.
Wilders' lawyer Bram Moszkowicz told the court last Friday he believed the judges to be partial as they had refused to order a probe of a witness accused of lying to the court. But van der Meer said there was no proof of impartiality, adding "irritation is not enough of a reason for a recusal."
The allegations arise partly from the short film "Fitna", which catapulted Wilders to international notoriety in 2008 and in which he mixes Koranic verses with footage of extremist attacks. Wilders likens the Koran to Adolf Hitler's "Mein Kampf".
This had been Wilders' second application for the withdrawal of judges on the grounds of bias.
For more: Dutch court rejects anti-Islam MP's bid against judges < Dutch news | Expatica The Netherlands
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