PHILIPSBURG--- Former Member of Parliament Patrick Illidge did not get good news on Friday morning when the Court of First Instance rendered its verdict in the bribery charges. The former Member of Parliament was acquitted on the illegal posssesson charges however Illidge was condemned to 18 months imprisonment, six of which are suspended. The former Member of Parliament was also banned from entering politics for the next five years.
Businessman Jaap Van den Huevel owner of Bada Bing night club was charged with offering of bribe, tax fraud, fencing, human/woman trafficking and using vulnerable women for the purpose of prostitution. Van den Huevel was sentenced to 42 months imprisonment, 12 of which are suspended. His company Lunteren also has to pay a fine of NAf.1.5M. The third suspect Krijn van der Brug in the Orca court case got a nine months suspended sentence, he was sentenced to 240 hours of community service.
Efforts made to reach both Illidge and Van Heuvel proved futile on Friday as they did not answer their phones.
The Prosecutors Office said in an invited comment that they are quite satisfied with the verdicts given by the court. Press Prosecutor Tineke Kamps said that the prosecution intends to study the verdicts in order to use them in other cases.
Translated version of the verdicts.
The sentence handed down by the court of first instance of St. Maarten, today, March 6, 2015. Has had an earth-shaking impact among operators of "adult entertainment " centers on the island. It might well spell the death-knell to the "whore-house business" as we know.
What the Judge said:
Mr. Jaap van den Heuvel well as his company, Lunteren N.V. have both been found guilty of " intentionally recruiting, transporting, transferring and or housing the six women mentioned as victims in the indictment, with the intention of putting these women to work as prostitutes, or with the intention of exploiting them."
Van den Heuvel was accused of providing rooms for these women at Bada Bing, where he set them to work as prostitutes. He furthermore exploited these women by making them pay US$60 per day for a room which they shared with one or more women, while they had to work and live in these same rooms. The women also had to pay for their airfare and for condoms. They were told when they could leave the premises and when they could return. They were given only one day off per week and had to pay a certain amount of money each time they left the premises with a client.
The court ruled that these women were abused because van den Heuvel knew they were poor and vulnerable. The women stated that because of their dire financial circumstances they really had no choice. The accused therefore knew that these women were vulnerable. One of the co-defendants even stated that they recruited women from Santo Domingo because they "wanted to do this work". The women were saddled with a start-off debt which they had to repay with the money they earned from prostitution. The court therefore considered it proven that the accused abused these women by using his power over them to recruit them as prostitutes. This according to the court also proved that the women were trafficked. The court furthermore considered exploitation proven because the women could not decide when, where, and with whom they wanted to work. They were not paid any salary but yet they were obliged to be at Bada Bing from5 pm, and to work from 10 pm to 5 am. Whenever a client wanted to take them out he had to pay Bada Bing US$150 from which the girls received nothing! The girls could not decide where they wanted to live, but were obliged to stay at Bada Bing. They slept two or three to a room, and didn't have their own bed, but had to share a double bed with someone else. For these poor accommodations they paid US$60 per day (US$1,800 per 30 day month), which amount was withheld from the money they earned from prostituting themselves. These circumstances led the court to conclude that van den Heuvel took advantage of the vulnerable position of these women and exploited them. Van den Heuvel was he leader in charge of this behavior at Bada Bing.
What this ruling means for other brother owners
Reading this must have shivers down the spines of the other brother operators. It accurately describes their "business model". This means that as of immediately, all brothel owners can be arrested for engaging in trafficking women and exploiting them. They will therefore have to undertake urgent action before the prosecutors office puts them all out of business, or in jail with Jaap van den Heuvel. A modus operandi which was followed for the sixty years since Campo Alegre opened its doors for business in the 1950s is suddenly threatened, its very existence called into question.
The Paradise in Munich Germany:
Recentyl, "Le Point", a French news magazine published an article about attempts in France to criminalize prostitution by prosecuting the customers. They referred to an article in the "Daily Mail" of London, in which an extensive report was published about club "Paradise" in Munich Germany. Perhaps the club owners in St. Maarten would like to take a look at that business model. Paradise rents rooms for 175 Euros per night to prostitutes who work for their own account. They do not live at the club, and do not work for the club. They only rent rooms there. The city has licensed the club for the purpose of prostitution, but the operators neither recruit nor manage the girls. The keep the place clean and provide security, but the girls are strictly independent operators. How the girls arrive at the club is not their concern, so they cannot be charged with neither human trafficking nor exploitation of vulnerable women. Of course, others do the dirty work of procuring the women, but the club stays safely out of the shadows. It is something whore-house operators in St. Maarten might want to start thinking hard about.
Click here to read the decision rendered by the court on Friday morning.
