Philipsburg:--- The leader of the United People's Party Theodore Heyliger was allegedly grilled again by the national detectives on Thursday. SMN News learned from well placed sources that Heyliger was questioned sometime after a complaint was filed by Member of Parliament Romain Laville. MP Laville was elected on the slate of the United People's Party in 2010. However, the MP was always at loggerheads with his party leader, Theodore Heyliger whom he said on several occasions acts more like a dictator. Due to the constant bickering, Laville decided to leave the UP Party and became an Independent Member of Parliament and he along with the two other Independent Members of Parliament Frans Richardson and Patrick Illidge formed the second coalition government in April 2012 with the National Alliance.
SMN News learnt that Laville said he was going to take actions against the UP leader and MP Jules James who are constantly harassing him and even filed a complaint with the national detectives against him claiming that he threatened his life. SMN News further learnt that Laville and some other politicians indicated while they were in Miami two weeks ago that they were going to take actions against the UP leader and members who they believe trapped MP Patrick Illidge when he was taped taking monies from the owner of Bada Bing. Shorty after the tape was made public, the strip club owner said that the UP leader is the one who asked him to tape Illidge while he was paying back a so-called loan he took from Illidge sometime in 2011.
The source said that Laville informed the detectives that are investigating Member of Parliament Patrick Illidge for accepting what looks like a bribe from the owner of Bada Bing strip club Jaap van der Heuvel that Heyliger offered him as much as $350,000.00 to return to the UP party so that he Heyliger and the Democratic Party could maintain the coalition government they formed in October 2010.
SMN News contacted Deputy Attorney General Taco Stein twice on Thursday while Heyliger was allegedly being questioned on the new information they have and Stein said that the leader of the UP Party was not detained neither was he questioned again. SMN News then contacted spokesperson for the Attorney General Norman Serphos who said he was informed that St. Maarten will issue a press release on Thursday evening but he Serphos said he did not know what the contents of that press release would be. Serphos promised to make contact with Stein but said he could not reach Stein by phone and Stein did not respond to the email he sent him on Thursday. On Thursday evening, SMN News called Stein again to ask for confirmation for the third time and instead of Stein answering the question, the phone went dead. SMN News then contacted Prosecutor Dounia Benammar to inquire if she had any information on the matter. Benammar said she did not have information but she also contacted Stein and he promised to get back to SMN News with a statement. Later on Thursday evening, Stein called SMN News reporter and maintained his statements that Heyliger was not questioned again on Thursday, when SMN News asked Stein if Laville had filed a complaint against Heyliger, Stein said he did not know and even if he had known he would not release the information because everyone has a right to file a complaint.
One of the things SMN News could not ascertain on Thursday is if Heyliger was indeed questioned and where the interrogation took place because last week Tuesday Heyliger was questioned at his home in Guana Bay while two other Ministers including the Minister of Justice were interrogated at the office of the national detectives.