Excerpt:
An Amsterdam court Thursday acquitted Dutch far-right lawmaker Geert Wilders on charges of hate speech and discrimination for statements he made attacking Islam.
"You are being acquitted on all the charges that were put against you," Judge Marcel van Oosten said, reiterating an argument last month by the prosecution that charges against Wilders should be dropped.
"The bench finds that your statements are acceptable within the context of the public debate," the judge told Wilders, 47, who has been on trial in the Amsterdam regional court since last October.