The Dutch Justice Ministry has denied that MPs changed the law in 2008 to enable Freedom Party leader Geert Wilders to be prosecuted.

Former MP Ayaan Hirsi Ali was wrong when she made this allegation in the Monday Wall Street Journal, a spokesperson for the ministry said. The change in the law was proposed at one point, but never actually passed by parliament.

Charged with hate-mongering
Mr Wilders is on trial in Amsterdam for inciting hatred and discrimination through his public statements about Muslims and their religion. He is also charged with insulting Muslims as a group by comparing their Holy Book with Hitler's Mein Kampf. The verdict is expected on Tuesday or Wednesday.

Ms Hirsi Ali is a Somali refugee and an outspoken Islam critic who was elected to the Dutch Lower House in 2003. She produced a movie entitled "Submission" about the oppression of women by hard-line Muslims together with filmmaker Theo van Gogh, who was killed by a Dutch-born radical Muslim in 2004. Ms Hirsi Ali left the Netherlands for the USA in 2006 after persistent death threats by radical Muslims. She currently works for the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research.

Withdrawn
In her Wall Street Times opinion piece, Ms Hirsi Ali wrote that Dutch MPs "modified Article 137C and 137D of the Penal Code to make it possible for far-left organizations to take Mr. Wilders to court on grounds of 'inciting hatred' against Muslims."

Although such a modification was indeed proposed, it never materialised. The Justice Minister at the time, Ernst Hirsch Ballin, had put the suggestion before the House in 2008, but he withdrew the plan half a year later, prompted by criticism from MPs and a High Council verdict in an unrelated case of slander. The minister's idea was part of a move to abolish blasphemy as a punishable offence.

© Radio Netherlands Worldwide