THE HAGUE, 11/11/10 – The appeal court in The Hague yesterday acquitted a rapper of threatening Party for Freedom (PVV) leader Geert Wilders because it did not consider the text of his song constituted an offence.
The rapper, who calls himself Mosheb, was prosecuted for the track ‘Who is next?’. He sings: Pim Fotuyn talked about Muslims, was shot. Theo van Gogh, talked about Muslims, was shot. Who is next…? (…) Am planning to make an attack on Geert Wilders. And that in WORDS. I find you a creep. You will be strangled. (…) Everyone who talks about Muslims gets killed.”
In the number, the rapper constantly alternates threats with mitigating words. “Geert you would be better to jump off the roof, or would you rather have bullets in your body? I am no terrorist, am an innocent rapper. This is a warning!! Do you want to stay alive? Then you must take back all your statements (…) Listen Geert, this is no joke, last night I dreamed that I had cut off your head.”
Wilders launched proceedings against the song in 2007, after he had heard and seen the clip on the Internet. A lower court convicted Mosheb, but the appeal court arrived at acquittal yesterday.
According to the appeal court, the text is not in itself a punishable offence. The track is punishable however in the way it was to be seen on Internet site YouTube. There, gunshots were also heard.
These shots cannot however be heard on the rapper’s original CD version. The appeal court concludes that it cannot be established whether the shots were added by the rapper or by someone else.