The comments he will be tried over were uttered at a March 2014 rally, when Wilders, speaking to a crowd, asked their opinions on immigration.
He asked whether the crowed wanted "fewer or more Moroccans in your city and in the Netherlands?"
Moroccans and Turks are the largest Muslim immigrant groups in the Netherlands.
Wilders got a definitive "fewer" response from the audience, according to Deutsche Welle.
"We're going to organize that," (or "I'll take care of that"), media reported Wilders as replying.
Wilders will be tried on the "suspicion of insulting a group of people based on race and inciting discrimination and hatred," said the judge.
According to Wilders' attorneys, the politician has "put forward his party's political programme" and merely used his constitutional freedom of speech.
In 2011, judges examined another case of Wilders' anti-Islamic remarks and acquitted him, ruling that the politician targeted a whole religion, not a specific group of people. This time, however, he mentioned a specific national group: Moroccans. Media do not report how exactly the court connects immigration restriction or deportation policies with actual hate, discrimination or violence, as well as whether "Moroccans" are actually a race.
Should the court proceed with the trial, it will have "far reaching political consequences for democracy in the Netherlands," Wilder's lawyer argued. Critics say the court case risks criminalizing merely having and articulating an immigration policy.
Wilders is now described as the "most heavily-guarded man" in the Netherlands by media, probably a result of the 2004 assassination of Theo van Gogh, director of a film deemed anti-Islamic by some.
