Court: Try politician for hate speech

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands, Jan. 21 (UPI) -- A Dutch court has ruled that controversial politician Geert Wilders should be prosecuted for anti-Islamic statements to a newspaper and in a film.

The decision by a court in Amsterdam came about six months after the public prosecutor decided against bringing charges, Radio Netherlands reported.

Wilders, leader of the Freedom Party, has compared the Koran to Adolf Hitler's book, "Mein Kampf." His movie, "Fitna," an Arabic word meaning strife, opens with a shot of the Koran followed by film footage of terrorist attacks in New York, London and Madrid.

Wilders called the ruling "an attack on freedom of expression," the BBC said. He said that if he is tried all citizens opposed to the "Islamization" of the Netherlands will be on trial.

But the court suggested that he has gone beyond debate.

"In a democratic system, hate speech is considered so serious that it is in the general interest to ... draw a clear line," the court said in its ruling.