THE HAGUE, 03/07/08 - Foreign Minister Maxime Verhagen has declined to complain to Jordan about Dutch MP Geert Wilders awaiting prosecution in that country.

Wilders had asked Verhagen to summon the Jordanian ambassador in The Hague to protest against the possible court case against the Party for Freedom (PVV) leader for insulting Islam. The minister however refuses. The Netherlands cannot interfere with the judicial process of another country. "This is for courts, not politics," said the minister during a House debate on the Middle East.

"Conversely, a country also cannot influence the independent judicial process in the Netherlands," according to Verhagen. The Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) however thinks differently about this; it does condemn the Dutch Public Prosecutor's Office (OM) decision not to prosecute Wilders domestically.

The OM announced Monday that Wilders cannot be prosecuted for any statement at all, nor for his short film Fitna, which shows atrocities committed in the name of Allah. The OIC is "very shocked" by this decision that "supports the irresponsible insulting style of some media and encourages and incites to feelings of hatred, hostility and antipathy towards Muslims," according to the organisation of 56 Islamic countries.

Verhagen does not wish to use such words against Jordan. Nor has he in any way expressed annoyance about calls for a boycott of Dutch products in Jordan.

Wilders, who earlier praised Verhagen for the "serious attention" he gave to the Jordan situation, will again ask Verhagen to summon the ambassador. "The minister must simply say: 'cut the crap, we are not taking this", he told reporters.

As well as being PVV leader, Wilders is also his party's foreign affairs spokesman, a function that requires traveling a lot. He must now report every foreign trip to Verhagen, who will then ask for a statement by the country involved that it will not extradite Wilders in the basis of the Jordanian warrant which is hanging over him.