AMSTERDAM, 14/01/10 - The Public Prosecutor (OM) has decided to widen its charges against MP Geert Wilders. He is now also accused of inciting hatred of Moroccans and non-Western immigrants.

The expansion of the charges is based by the OM among other things on Wilders' statement: "The borders will (....) close for all non-Western immigrants," De Volkskrant newspaper reported yesterday.

The OM does not wish to disclose why it widened the charges yet. "We will explain this during the administrative session on 20 January," a spokesman said.

The step is remarkable, as initially, the OM did not want to prosecute Wilders at all. No statement whatever that he ever made was an offence, the OM argued.

But last year, the appeal court in Amsterdam ordered the OM to prosecute Wilders after all. He must stand trial for incitement to hatred and discrimination against Muslims, and insulting Muslims as a group, it ruled.

Gerard Spong and Haroon Raza, lawyers for Muslims and leftwing organisations that launched proceedings against the PVV leader, praise the OM for extending the indictment with inciting hatred of Moroccans and non-Western immigrants. They believe the prosecution of these charges is even more likely to succeed than the charge of inciting hatred against Muslims. "Wilders insists that he attacks Islam, and not Muslims. But with ethnicity, it is always a matter of people. Then you cannot say: I did not mean it like that," says Raza.

Most neutral lawyers in fact expect Wilders to be acquitted. They expect that the contested statements will be permitted, on the basis of rulings in similar cases and because Wilders is an MP. The case will most likely not be handled in substance before the local council elections on 3 March.

Wilders appeared in person in a district court in Amsterdam yesterday to fight his prosecution. This was an attempt to convince the judges that the OM must withdraw the case, among other reasons because as an MP, Wilders should not be prosecuted.

Wilders complained about the session in the court. For example, the heating in the court did not work. "It was minus two degrees. The prosecutor would not look at me and swept all our arguments off the table. I hope that the court does adopt them." The press was not allowed access to the session.

To a question from a journalist as to whether he believes he will get an independent trial, Wilders said: "We will see. Up to now, it has been a political process. (....) The OM is going further than what the appeal court had decided on in the charges. Freedom of speech is under pressure. Even the legal system in North Korea is better than that in the Netherlands."