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.
Gun
New face and number five on the list, Gid Markuszower has come under intense press scrutiny for carrying a gun in public at celebrations to mark 60 years since the founding of Israel at the Rai exhibition centre in Amsterdam two years ago. Although he had a gun licence, this broke the rules on carrying weapons and he was questioned for two hours by police.
At the time Markuszower was a member of a private security group called Bij Leven en Welzijn which carries out security duties for synagogues and other Jewish interests, according to magazine Vrij Nederlands. He was also the Dutch spokesman for right-wing Israeli party Likud. He has since quit both functions.
Other candidates have inaccurate cvs. Number nine on the list, Mellony van Hemert has not earned a doctorate in child abuse as the PVV website first claimed. And according to the Volkskrant, nor is there any record of her being a qualified psychologist. Her entry on the party’s website has now been amended.