Dutch anti-Islam party hit by scandal

Tue Nov 16, 2010

A member of the anti-Islamic Dutch Freedom Party with a past conviction for sexual offenses is posing problems for party leader Geert Wilders.

Parliament member Eric Lucassen has been embroiled in a controversy after it was revealed on Thursday that he had been found guilty of sexual misconduct in 2002.

The former army instructor served one week in military detention in the same year for having sex with a female army recruit while he was a sergeant, TV station RTL4 reported last week.

The lawmaker has also been accused of threatening and intimidating his neighbors between 2006 and 2009.

Wilders had earlier stated that he felt 'unfairly treated' by Lucassen, but stopped short of expelling him from the party.

The MP's ouster from the Freedom Party group in the Lower House would have created a crisis for the one-seat majority supporting the current right-wing government.

Theoretically, that could lead to the fall of the cabinet barely a month after the new government came into office.

The recent crisis has raised serious questions over the screening of political candidates before elections.

Wilders, however, argues that his party lacks the means to hire expensive bureaus to screen candidates.

"It's not the first time things like these have happened," Wilders went on to say.

The party leader was hinting at a 2009 incident in which another Freedom Party MP, Hero Brinkman, assaulted a barman in the parliament's press cafe.

Also in 2002, Dion Graus, Freedom Party MP and animal rights campaigner, was accused of physically abusing his pregnant wife.

Wilders made headlines worldwide in March 2008 after making the anti-Islam film, Fitna. The movie prompted angry protests across the world.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon described Wilders' movie as “offensively anti-Islamic”. The European Parliament also banned the screening of the film, saying it provoked hatred.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail/151228.html.