(CNN) -- Far-right Dutch politician Geert Wilders went on trial in the Netherlands on Monday, charged with inciting discrimination and hatred over a controversial film he made about Islam.
Wilders' film "Fitna," which he released online in March 2008 to international outcry, features disturbing images of terrorist acts superimposed over verses from the Quran in order to paint Islam as a threat to Western society.
Comments which Wilders made in a variety of media between 2006 and 2008 also form part of the case against him.
They include an October 2006 interview with the Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant in which he said he wanted to stop the "tsunami of Islamization," and another in September 2007 with Radio Netherlands in which he said the Quran should be banned.
Wilders says he has done nothing wrong, vowing "I will fight," in a statement on the party's website when he faced a pre-trial hearing in January.
Wilders' Party for Freedom surged in parliamentary elections this June, becoming the third largest party in the chamber and more than doubling the number of seats it holds
Its 24 seats were much more than analysts had predicted, but other parties refused to work with Wilders and the center right formed a minority government.
Prosecutors had initially decided not to pursue the incitement case against Wilders, saying in June 2008 that his statements were not liable to punishment, according to the Public Prosecutions Service.
CNN
