Geert Wilders boycotts start of hate speech trial in the Netherlands

Dutch anti-Islam politician Geert Wilders has boycotted the opening of his hate speech trial in the Netherlands.

His lawyer, Geert-Jan Knoops, read out a statement in which Wilders called his case a "political trial" targeting freedom of speech.

It is not the first time Wilders, whose party is riding high in opinion polls ahead of next year's parliamentary elections, has been prosecuted. He was acquitted on hate speech charges in 2011 after complaints about his fierce criticism of Islam.

The trial, which is scheduled to last more than three weeks, centres on comments Wilders made before and after Dutch municipal elections in 2014.

At one meeting in a Hague cafe, he asked supporters whether they wanted more or fewer Moroccans in the Netherlands, sparking a chant of: "Fewer! Fewer! Fewer!"

"We'll take care of it," he replied, in a video recording played in court.

Reading from evidence in the case, presiding judge Hendrik Steenhuis cited policy workers from Wilders' populist Freedom Party as saying that the audience had been instructed beforehand on how to react to Wilders' questions.

Wilders has refused to back away from the comments.

"It is my right and my duty as a politician to speak about the problems in our country," Wilders said in the statement.

As the trial began, Wilders tweeted: "NL has huge problem with Moroccans. To be silent about it is cowardly. Forty-three percent of Dutch want fewer Moroccans. No verdict will change that."

Wilders faces a maximum sentence of two years' imprisonment if convicted of insulting a group based on race, and inciting hatred and discrimination.

However, prosecutors say courts mostly sentence people convicted of such offences to a fine or community service order.

Prosecutor Sabina van der Kallen said she would not ask judges to order Wilders to attend the hearings as he had previously refused to answer investigators' questions.

She rejected the charge that the case is politically driven.

"The motivation of the prosecution is exclusively upholding the democratically established law, independent of politics," Ms van der Kallen told the court.