Leak sparks security scare for anti-Islam Dutch MP

A security scare over the safety of outspoken far-right Dutch MP Geert Wilders emerged today just three weeks before a knife-edge election, after a police agent was arrested for leaking information about him to a Moroccan gang.
Wilders, who has courted controversy with his hardline anti-Islam, anti-immigrant stance and his incendiary insults against Moroccans and Turks, has long been under 24-hour police protection.
But tensions are escalating ahead of the March 15 election in which the MP's Freedom Party is running neck-and-neck with the Liberals of Prime Minister Mark Rutte.
On Saturday, Wilders upped the tone at the launch of his official campaign, denouncing "a lot of Moroccan scum who make the streets unsafe".

Wilders today would not divulge details about the security issue, but said on Twitter: "It's a serious matter and fortunately it's being taken seriously by the cabinet too."
National police spokesman Dennis Janus confirmed to AFP that an agent had been arrested on Monday suspected of "violating official secrets".

"The police together with the public prosecution service are currently investigating," Janus said, but declined to give further information.
Citing high-level police sources, the NRC daily reported that an agent had handed over information about Wilders' movements to a Moroccan-Dutch criminal organisation.
The leak was serious enough to trigger talks between Wilders and his political foe Rutte, who also refused to comment to reporters afterwards.

The unnamed agent is part of the so-called "Iris team", a police squad which carries out preliminary sweeps of public spaces before appearances by politicians such as Wilders or the Dutch royal family, popular daily tabloid De Telegraaf reported.
It was not immediately clear whether the agent was directly involved in Wilders' personal protection.
But Wilders, who was last year convicted by a Dutch court of discrimination, said in a tweet: "If I cannot blindly trust the (team) that has to protect me I can't function. It's unacceptable!"
Dutch police chief Erik Akkerboom told news radio station BNR: "What we know up to now, is that (Wilders') safety was not in question.