JUDGES IN GEERT WILDERS TRIAL STAYING PUT

On the first day of Dutch politician Geert Wilders' trial, he asked the judges to recuse themselves for being biased against him. They responded by adjourning for 24 hours until they could render a decision. When they came back, they said they weren't going anywhere and that Wilders mis-understood their statements.

First up, via Bloomberg, here is what one judge said that Wilders found objectionable on Day 1:

Presiding Judge Jan Moors yesterday, on the first day of the trial, told Wilders the court “reads newspapers and watches television” and that Wilders has been blamed by others for being “good in taking a stand and then avoiding a discussion.” By choosing not to testify “it seems you’re doing that today as well.”

After Wilders accused the judges of bias, they came back one day later and said they would not recuse themselves; here is their explanation:

“There are no weighty indications that the judges have given the impression of being prejudiced,” Judge Frans Bauduin, who was brought in to rule on the impartiality question, said at the court today. The words used by the presiding judge in that last sentence were chosen unfortunately,” Bauduin said. “They’ve given the requestor a wrong impression.”

Words chosen unfortunately? How about the bias? Was that chosen unfortunately too?

h/t to Weasel Zippers