AMSTERDAM (Reuters) – A Dutch court sentenced a former Pakistani cricketer to 12 years in prison on Monday after he was tried in absentia for urging people to murder Dutch far-right leader Geert Wilders.
The court ruled that the statement by 37-year-old Khalid Latif – who lives in Pakistan and has not attended any stage of the trial or been detained in the Netherlands – should be regarded as incitement to murder, sedition and threat.
Prosecutors said Latif posted a video in 2018, offering a reward for the murder of Wilders. That video came after Wilders said he planned to hold a contest for cartoons depicting caricatures of the Muslim Prophet Mohammad. The competition was later cancelled.
Images of the Prophet Mohammad are forbidden in Islam as a form of idolatry. Caricatures are regarded by most Muslims as highly offensive.
Reuters was not immediately able to reach Latif – who received a five-year ban from cricket in 2017 over a spot-fixing scandal – for comment. Latif, 37, captained the Pakistan team in the 2010 Asian Games.
(Reporting by Bart Meijer; Editing by Andrew Heavens)
