Philipsburg:--- After reading several articles and commentaries where the manager and editor of the Today Newspaper Hilbert Haar has chosen to write constant trash about SMN News reporter and criticize our work. We have decided to respond to the so-called reporter who has made it his business to attack local St. Maarteners and its elected officials while protecting the incompetent Dutch Prosecutors that are allowed to work on the island. While Hilbert Haar has an axe to grind with locals and with SMN News reporter, he somehow failed to realize that it's a local man who chose to hire him for so long even though his newspaper has gone from being bad to worse.
Readers on St. Maarten do not even purchase the newspaper Haar works for and the businesses on St. Maarten also saw that Hilbert Haar has one mission which is far from writing news so they refuse to advertise with this newspaper. Everyone on St. Maarten is now wondering how the "Yesterday Newspaper" continues to exist without incoming revenues. Maybe the guys in blue should look to see if there is money washing taking place close to the Prins Bernard Bridge.
Hilbert Haar described SMN News as a gossip website yet he is not able to stay off of it. It is from SMN News Hilbert Haar gets most of his news and has stolen several articles from us without crediting his sources, yet he chose to say that he does not know why the people of St. Maarten/ St. Martin choose to have SMN News on their menu. The question the owner of SMN News has for Hilbert Haar why is he always on SMN News? Are you not able to secure and write news articles of your own?
Since Mr. Haar likes comparing what the Netherlands and its people sees fit for their country and only St. Maarten tolerate what the Netherlands does not tolerate then our advise to Hilbert Haar is to go back to where he ran away from because surely the newspapers and other media entities in the Netherlands would not give him a job. Or maybe Haar should try going to the USA where he is wanted for a traffic violation.
While Hilbert Haar has a lot to write about Bibi Hodge Shaw, let it be known that Haar was locked up for beating a female co-worker and his friends at the Prosecutor's Office released him but to date have refused to press charges and tried to force the victim to accept an apology. If any other suspect was arrested for beating an employee would Chief Prosecutor Hans Mos do what he did for Hilbert Haar, or did Haar's nationality and personal relationship with the Prosecutor's Office play a role in the decision making of that case?
As for the incident on Wednesday in the Common Court of Appeals, Hilbert Haar should tell the few readers he has that the Dutch Prosecutor Gonda van der Wulp who verbally attacked SMN News was sitting next to him so she can coerce him into writing an article that would not expose the incompetencies coming from the Prosecutor's Office. Serving a simple summons to a murder suspect was done three times and each time with a blunder which might throw the entire case in limbo.
Just recently the Minister of Justice Roland Duncan described Hilbert Haar as a "Dutch Stooge" and after reading his unfounded article on Friday we have no choice but to say the Minister of Justice was right in selecting the name for Hilbert Haar, therefore we too have decided to label him as a "Dutch Stooge".
Haar said he is not there to tell the Court House or the Prosecutor's Office what to do because according to him Bibi Hodge Shaw broke the rules. Hilbert Haar and his prosecutor friend was sitting in front of SMN News reporter, behind the SMN News reporter were several top ranking police officers who saw that the Prosecutor lied on SMN News reporter.
What Haar needs to know is that his friend Gonda van der Wulp was out of place first by taking up the place assigned to reporters, secondly she was more out of place to create a scene and lie during an open court session. If SMN News reporter had done anything that was in violation of the court the only persons that had to take action was the three judges, the court bailiff, or the police officers who told SMN News reporter that they saw and know Prosecutor Gonda van der Wulp lied on her. These police officers will be called as witnesses because SMN News reporter has taken the necessary steps against Prosecutor Gonda van der Wulp.
Since Hilbert Haar mentions certain things that are not accepted in the Netherlands but is tolerated on St. Maarten. SMN News will go further and inform our readers that only on St. Maarten we take a Prosecutor that was kicked out of Aruba and make him Chief Prosecutor on St. Maarten, this person is none other than Chief Prosecutor Hans Mos. Only on St. Maarten, prosecutors try every trick in the book to obtain evidence against people illegally, even trying to sleep with suspect's girlfriend to get sworn statements, or plant drugs in another man's car so he can sleep with the man's wife or girlfriend. Just in case Haar and his friends at the Prosecutor's Office do not know who we are referring to, SMN News will make it easy for Haar to do his research. The case of Barth den Hartigh against Charles Barry, Virgilio Leonora owner of Oasis Restaurant against former prosecutor Gert Oldenkamp who was convicted for the crime he committed against Leonora, not to mention Jan Bart Daveling caught driving under the influence of alcohol and almost ran over a police patrol. Daveling was dismissed and sent back to the Netherlands where cannabis and alcohol can be bought at cafes. Only on St. Maarten a convicted Chief Prosecutor is accepted in the bar and is allowed to practice law on the island.
In other countries, incompetent prosecutors who bungled a major murder case where the suspects confessed to killing two innocent people in an attempt to rob them would have been charged with Prosecutorial Misconduct. So yes, lots of things are allowed on St. Maarten because of the twisted legal system. And to end this article only on St. Maarten sworn court translators living on the French side who work as freelance workers at the Court of First Instance would violate the oath they took when they leak information from the court house to their husband Hilbert Haar. Really only St. Maarten this kind of craziness is allowed.
