Too many leaks and alignment with possible suspects and politicians.
PHILIPSBURG:--- Some departments of the justice chain on St. Maarten are now trying to investigate cases that surfaced days ago while they have several cases of alleged corruption lying on their desks taking dust. Even a judge accused the prosecution of "class justice" something the local population on St. Maarten have been crying out loud for years. The Landsrecherche that has been established on St. Maarten since St. Maarten became a country spent most of its resources investigating prison fights and other incidents. While neglecting the cases that involve politicians or persons that are considered untouchable within the St. Maarten community.
KPSM took on the cases that involved two customs officers who were working at the Princess Juliana International Airport and investigated that case involving two top civil servants working in the justice chain and got them convicted for drug trafficking.
Just last week Wednesday the Landsrecherche and RST decided to contact newly elected Member of Parliament Christopher Emmanuel to take a statement from him about the statements he made on the floor of parliament last week Monday when St. Maarten Parliament called its first meeting to discuss the instruction given to Governor Holiday on September 17th, 2014. During that meeting MP Emmanuel said in 2010 he was offered $80,000.00 to run a particular list that was contesting the 2010 Island Council election. SMN News did some research and found out that the political party in question has close ties with certain banks that are releasing person's information to politicians so those politicians can use it to bait or bargain with political candidates. A well-placed source said when Emmanuel was contacted in 2010 the political party that contacted him got all his "mortgage" information from his bank and that is the reason they offered him $80,000.00. SMN News was informed that another politician who jumped shipped allegedly had all his debts paid off because the same set of politicians checked his bank and saw that the Member of Parliament had huge debts.
SMN News further learnt that when the detectives met with Emmanuel on Wednesday last week he told them that he was not willing to give them a full statement except to what he said on the floor of parliament simply because the justice chain on St. Maarten cannot be trusted. SMN News learnt that MP Emmanuel gave the detectives marching orders to go out in the St. Maarten community to find the information they need if they really want to do proper investigation. The source said the reason MP Emmanuel did not cooperate with the investigators was because he knew that certain politicians are very close with investigators, prosecutors and even the Solicitor General on St. Maarten and should he give a full statement to the detectives then that statement will be given to the political parties (politician) that same afternoon. SMN News has been reliably informed that a certain political party had their aide contact a very close relative of MP Christopher Emmanuel and told him his job was to convince the newly elected Member of Parliament that he does not need to do anything but to declare himself independent from the National Alliance slate and support them to form a government. The person who contacted Emmanuel's relatives it is understood told them that if Emmanuel agrees then they will take the relative of the MP off island to make the $2M payment. This is the second Member of Parliament who has claimed that they were offered huge bribes by certain politicians, one even filed complaints but the prosecution chose not to act on the complaints that were filed.
When SMN News contacted MP Emmanuel for a statement on the information received, MP Emmanuel said that he was not going to comment but whenever he picks up a copy of the statement he gave the investigators he will share it with SMN News since that too is part of transparency. MP Emmanuel made clear that he will not say anything more than he said on the floor of parliament last Monday. The statements MP Emmanuel made caused a huge stir in the Netherlands and St. Maarten even having some politicians sitting at the edge of their seats.
SMN News published several articles showing evidence where the Public Prosecutors Office has been engaging in illegal activities and has also been accumulating questionable wealth on the island. Even though these articles have been published, to date Minister of Justice Dennis Richardson who once said he was not aware of the seized assets the prosecution has did not give a reaction now that the photos of the seized assets have been published including the receipts of sales of several boats and outboard engines that were sold by the prosecution and another company and not by the bailiffs.
Even the Attorney General who is currently on St. Maarten holding meetings remain mum on the issues that reflect corruption in the justice chain.
Persons on St. Maarten are demanding a full scale investigation within the Public Prosecutors Office since they said no one can trust the prosecution and several of its investigators because of their close ties with criminals and politicians. Prosecutors on St. Maarten were caught driving under the influence, one was accused of trying to sleep a convict's girlfriend in order to obtain evidence for a high profile case on St. Maarten, yet no real sanctions have been taken against these prosecutors that were chosen by the Kingdom and sent to St. Maarten.
SMN News in its most recent article stated that an attorney spoke to SMN News about an unusual transaction he had at the Prosecutors Office some years ago. That attorney said he was hired to represent a client who was travelling to Haiti with a large amount of monies he intended to take for other Haitian relatives. The attorney said that his client had all proof of how he accumulated the monies and what the monies were intended for when he reached his destination but the prosecution chose not to look at his client's evidence and went ahead and seized his money. The attorney who preferred not to release his identity said he was convoked to the Prosecutors Office after 5pm and when he arrived there, there was only one prosecutor in office and that prosecutor took the bag of monies out from a cupboard and he told him that instead of charging his client he will give him a fine of $20,000.00. The attorney said that the prosecutor proceeded and count the $20,000.00 and return the balance of the monies to him. Further the prosecutor then typed up a receipt in his computer on a regular Microsoft document and signed it and gave it to. The attorney said fines are not normally paid at the Prosecutors Office and if by chance it's done the receipt has to be written on specific receipt book with consecutive numbers. More astonishing in this incident the attorney said when this incident took place the prosecutor in question was busy building his mansion on St. Maarten.
The Minister of Interior and Home Affairs Ronald Plasterk said he will send reinforcement to St. Maarten's Prosecutors Office to assist especially the Landsrecherche and the RST with the backlog cases they have in their offices and claim not to have enough resources. The question the people of St. Maarten has is if the Attorney General or Minister Plasterk will initiate an investigation against the people they appoint at the Prosecutor's Office for corruption.
