MARIGOT:--- The Criminal Courts in St. Martin acquitted first Vice President Guillaume Arnell, former head of Urbanisme Jose Carti, and the Director of SINDEXTOUR Norbert Luftman of all charges in the Authorization for Temporary Occupation (AOT) trial that took place on September 19th and 20th 2013. The three men had over one year of publicity when the civil parties filed an official complaint against them with the Gendarmes when they learnt that SINDEXTOUR was granted an extension of the AOT for Orient Bay and the request they submitted to the COM to obtain an AOT was not treated.
The lawyers that represented the three men, namely Maitre Jean Yves Leborgne, Maitre Thierry Herzog, and Maitre Michel Pradines defended their clients by poking holes in the entire case based on procedural errors committed by the investigators.
President of the court Gérard EGRON-REVERSEAU pronounced the decision of the court on Thursday November 28th, 2013. The trio Arnell, Carti, and Luftman and their relatives and friends listened keenly as the president of court read out the decision taken by his court. Also present in the court were the civil parties Elisa Cohen owner of Bikini Beach and workers from Kontiki Beach owned by Phillipe Just.
The court in its decision threw out the claims for damages filed by the civil parties citing that victims were not directly harmed because they were not the owners of the AOT granted by the COM for AW-33, neither was there evidence to show that there was prejudice against the request they submitted to the COM for an AOT. The court believed that only one that suffered harm is the COM because they lost revenues. Therefore, the COM is the only direct victim and not the civil parties namely Cohen and Just. The judge felt that the only thing the civil parties did when they filed their complaints was derail the criminal proceedings and the court does not see the need to grant the civil parties any damages at this time. The court also ruled that the civil parties were not directly harmed when they were evicted from their place of business and deemed the Collectivity as victim on the charges of fraud.
After the decision was pronounced, Arnell who was surrounded by his mother and other relatives, Carti and his family members, and Norbert Luftman and his friends began celebrating as they walked out of the court room. In front of the court house quickly became a spectacle as those that went to court in support of Arnell, Carti, and Luftman began cheering as the three men were cleared of all the charges that were brought against them.
The charges brought against Arnell and Carti were "concussion", fraud, and obtaining false administrative documents while Luftman with recel de bien (deriving wealth) through a punishable act, fraud, and obtaining false administrative documents.
The court rejected the validity of the citation issued against Guillaume Arnell basically because Maitre Jean Yves Leborgne who represented first Vice President attacked the entire case on technical merits. Another huge victory for first Vice President Guillaume Arnell is the fact that the Prosecutor Flavien Noailles did not issue request to extend Arnell's garde à vue, therefore all statements that were taken during the second garde à vue from Arnell could not be admissible.
As for Carti and Luftman, the court found that there was no evidence in the dossier to show that Luftman and Carti had any contact by telephone, or mail that showed Carti worked in favor of Luftman when he chose to renew the AOT for SINDEXTOUR.
The court also ordered that the Euros 10,000.00 that Luftman had to deposit as bond must be returned to him. Based on the decision rendered by the court, the entire case was dismissed because of the technical errors, it is clear that the merits of the dossier submitted by the public prosecutor was not judged. It is not yet known if the Prosecutor would file an appeal on the decision that was rendered on Thursday November 28th, 2013.
The owner of Bikini Beach Elisa Cohen and the workers who attended the court session on Thursday were speechless as they could not believe what they heard when the president of the court pronounced the decision.
