Netherlands: Number 3 on the PVV list was radical imam's lawyer
Number three on the anti-Islam PVV's list of prospective MPs once defended a radical imam whom party leader Geert Wilders said should be deported, the Telegraaf reports on Wednesday.
Lilian Helder defended the Eindhoven imam Imraan Kariman in 2007 for an inflammatory speech which led to a two year court ban on public speaking, the paper said. At the time Wilders said the man should be deported.
Last year she defended the same imam again when he was involved in a fight outside a mosque, the paper says.
The PVV published its list of prospective MPs on Tuesday, but was immediately criticised for including few new faces. The top 20 names on the list include all nine sitting MPs, three party workers, two local councillors who won seats in the March local vote and one member of the European parliament.
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Helder's statements that the Dutch penal code should be harsher, caught her employer by surprise. Marc Houben of the Houben & Van Dijck legal firm, was interviewed saying that he did not agree with his soon to be former employee.
Helder represented Kariman and his followers (the Muslim Welfare Association of the Netherlands). Kariman of the Anwar-e-Medina mosque in Eindhoven made headlines in 2001, when he gave a tour to students and made discriminating remarks about gays. In 2006 the mosque ended the imam's employment contract, and a court banned him from showing up in the mosque again, which he ignored.
In January 2007, Geert Wilders demanded to deport the imam. In February 2009, Helder told a court that Kariman had acted in an 'exemplary' fashion.
Sources: DutchNews (English), Telegraaf, BN/DeStem (Dutch)
Number three on the anti-Islam PVV's list of prospective MPs once defended a radical imam whom party leader Geert Wilders said should be deported, the Telegraaf reports on Wednesday.
Lilian Helder defended the Eindhoven imam Imraan Kariman in 2007 for an inflammatory speech which led to a two year court ban on public speaking, the paper said. At the time Wilders said the man should be deported.
Last year she defended the same imam again when he was involved in a fight outside a mosque, the paper says.
The PVV published its list of prospective MPs on Tuesday, but was immediately criticised for including few new faces. The top 20 names on the list include all nine sitting MPs, three party workers, two local councillors who won seats in the March local vote and one member of the European parliament.
(more)
---------------
Helder's statements that the Dutch penal code should be harsher, caught her employer by surprise. Marc Houben of the Houben & Van Dijck legal firm, was interviewed saying that he did not agree with his soon to be former employee.
Helder represented Kariman and his followers (the Muslim Welfare Association of the Netherlands). Kariman of the Anwar-e-Medina mosque in Eindhoven made headlines in 2001, when he gave a tour to students and made discriminating remarks about gays. In 2006 the mosque ended the imam's employment contract, and a court banned him from showing up in the mosque again, which he ignored.
In January 2007, Geert Wilders demanded to deport the imam. In February 2009, Helder told a court that Kariman had acted in an 'exemplary' fashion.
Sources: DutchNews (English), Telegraaf, BN/DeStem (Dutch)
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