The trial of MP and anti-Islam party leader Geert Wilders was suspended on Monday after Wilders’ lawyer accused the panel of judges of being partisan.

Bram Moszkowicz issued a formal challenge to the make-up of the court after the chief judge had outlined the charges which Wilders is facing.
Wilders evoked his right to silence at the start of the trial, saying he would not answer any questions and that his lawyer would answer on his behalf.
The chief judge commented that Wilders’ appeared to be avoiding the issue by opting not to answer questions.
A special court committee will announce on Tuesday if Moszkowicz’ claim is justified and new judges should be sworn in.
Inciting hatred
Wilders, a silent partner of the probable new government, is on trial in Amsterdam on charges of discrimination and inciting hatred against Muslims, Moroccans and non-Western immigrants.
The trial centres on a number of statements made by Wilders over the years. In one, he likened the Koran to Hitler’s book Mein Kampf and called for it to be banned.
In another, he said: ‘The borders will be closed that day for all non-western immigrants….We have to stop the tsunami of islamisation. It is affecting our heart, our identity, our culture.’
Voters
As each statement was read out in court, officials asked Wilders if the quotation was accurate and if he had approved it before publication. In each case, Wilders refused to answer.
In a short statement before announcing he would not answer any questions, Wilders said the ‘freedom of speech for at least 1.5 million people is on trial’, referring to the 1.5 million people who voted for the PVV at the last election.
‘Wilders has established himself as the anti-status quo figure, so he will try to turn the trial into a political event, to try to prove that indeed he is correct that there is no freedom of speech in the Netherlands,’ Dick Houtman, professor of cultural sociology at Erasmus University in Rotterdam, told the Financial Times