The public prosecution department has asked Pakistan to cooperate in its efforts to try a 37-year-old man for offering a €21,000 reward for the murder of far right Dutch MP Geert Wilders five years ago.

The department has asked the Pakistan authorities to deliver the formal summons to the man – named by Dutch media as cricket player Khaled Latif – but admits there is no guarantee it will have any effect, given the two countries do not have a treaty on requests for legal help.

In addition, Pakistan has not cooperated with earlier requests for help, the department said.

In most cases, it is extremely difficult to identify people in other countries who make threats against Dutch nationals, because they often do this on social media using a pseudonym.  In this case, however, it has been possible to identify the man because he is a celebrity in his home country.

Latif reportedly made the offer of a bounty at the time Wilders launched his high profile Mohammed cartoon competition. He was suspended from playing cricket for five years in 2017 for spot fixing.

The case is scheduled to be heard at the end of August at the high security court room at Schiphol airport.