THE HAGUE: A Dutch court sentenced a Pakistani man to 10 years behind bars Monday for planning to assassinate a politician Geert Wilders after the MP announced an anti-Islam cartoon competition.
The man, identified as Junaid I. by local media, was arrested in August 2018 at a train station in The Hague after he posted a film on Facebook in which he said he wanted to “send Wilders to hell” and urged others to help.
Judges at The Hague’s district court found the 27-year-old man, who had traveled from France, guilty of “planning a murder with a terrorist motive” and “incitement to commit a terrorist deed.”
“The suspect more than once said that Wilders’ death would be a good deed,” said presiding judge Jan van Steen, who added four years in jail to the six years sought by the prosecution.
“Furthermore, the suspect wanted to commit the murder in one of the parliamentary buildings, the heart of Dutch democracy,” Van Steen said, adding “the court is alarmed that the suspect... declared that this case will boost his image in Pakistan.”
The suspect had denied any terror-related motives.
He said during the trial that he was “peace-loving” and had only traveled to the Netherlands from France to protest against Wilders’ cartoon competition.
The Facebook video was seen by more than 153,000 people and shared 14,000 times.
Far-right leader Wilders canceled his plans two days later to stage a cartoon competition against the Prophet of Islam, a move that angered many Muslims, particularly in Pakistan where protests were led by the hard-line Islamist Tehreek-e-Labaik Pakistan party.
Wilders, 56, known for his peroxide bouffant hairdo and firebrand anti-immigration and anti-Islamist statements, lives in a safe house and has been granted 24-hour protection by the Dutch state.
The court did not say how Junaid I. planned to kill Wilders but found that in a bugged phone call after his arrest he said he took “specific things with him... without which his mission would not be complete.”
He had also walked round with a “large backpack, which he did not have when he was arrested” and lied about what it contained, the judges said.
A day after Wilders announced the cancelation, an Afghan man stabbed two American tourists at Amsterdam’s main train station. The man, who said he wanted to “protect the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH),” was last month sentenced to 26 years in jail.
Pakistani jailed for Dutch anti-Islam MP murder plot
Pakistani jailed for Dutch anti-Islam MP murder plot
- A Dutch court found the 27-year-old guilty of ‘planning a murder with a terrorist motive’
- The judge added four years in jail to the six years sought by the prosecution
Ex-PM Imran Khan lawyers move Pakistan court for his release on medical grounds
- Khan was sentenced to 17 years in prison in a case involving illegal retention of state gifts he received as PM
- The development comes as an opposition protest seeking Khan’s transfer to a private hospital enters the second day
ISLAMABAD: Lawyers of jailed former prime minister Imran Khan have moved a Pakistani high court to suspend his 17-year prison term in a graft case and release the ex-premier on grounds of his deteriorating health, Khan’s party said on Saturday.
The development follows a rare prison visit earlier this week by Barrister Salman Safdar, appointed as amicus curiae by the Supreme Court, to assess Khan’s health and living conditions at Rawalpindi’s Adiala jail. In his report, Safdar stated the ex-premier had suffered a significant loss of sight in his right eye.
The report sparked a protest by an alliance of opposition parties, the Tehreek-e-Tahafuz-e-Ayeen-e-Pakistan (TTAP), which also includes members of Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, at Parliament House in Islamabad, with the protesters demanding Khan’s transfer from Adiala Jail to Al-Shifa Hospital for treatment.
The petition filed by Khan’s lawyers in the Islamabad High Court (IHC) seeks suspension of a Dec. 20, 2025 judgment by a special court involving illegal retention of state gifts, arguing that “continued incarceration of the Petitioner during pendency of the Appeal would result in grave miscarriage of justice.”
“The filing argues that the judgment is under substantive legal challenge and requests that the appellate court suspend the sentence until the appeal is decided, a remedy available under Pakistani law when serious questions are raised about the conviction,” Khan’s PTI party said in a statement on Saturday.
According to the petition filed by Barrister Safdar, a specialist at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) diagnosed “severe damage to the Petitioner’s right eye caused by a blood clot, leaving him with only fifteen percent (15 percent) vision in the affected eye.”
“[This] medical complication is of such gravity and seriousness that the same cannot be treated inside the jail premises,” the petition read.
The development came as the opposition sit-in at parliament entered its second day on Saturday. Local media reported the Khan supporters had also blocked the Hazara motorway in the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, ruled by his PTI party.
“This sit-in will continue until Imran Khan is transferred to Al-Shifa Hospital,” the opposition alliance said on X.
Khan, 73, has been in custody since August 2023. This petition seeks to suspend his December conviction on charges of “criminal breach of trust” and corruption related to a jewelry set. He was sentenced to 10 years for criminal breach of trust and seven years under the Prevention of Corruption Act.
The petition represents the latest chapter in a long-running legal battle for the former cricket star-turned-politician. Since his removal from office in 2022, Khan has faced a barrage of cases.
His legal team argues the “present prosecution constitutes yet another continuation of this pattern” of “unprecedented political victimization.” The government says the courts are free to decide on legal matters.
On Friday, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Tariq Fazal Chaudhry said there would be no negligence with regard to Khan’s treatment.
“Medical report will be compiled again, the chief justice of the Supreme Court is himself monitoring this case,” he said.
“Wherever it will be requested, Imran Khan’s eye will be examined at.”
