PHILIPSBURG:--- The Buncamper family still has wait a few more months before they know whether or not the case brought against them by the Prosecutor’s Office will be thrown out or not. The Court of First Instance ruled on Wednesday that three more witnesses have to be heard by the Judge of Instruction and continuation of the management hearing will take place on January 13th 2016.
Last week Wednesday the Prosecutor’s Office willingly dropped the second charge they brought against the Buncamper’s due to prosecutorial misconduct by the prosecutor that was handling the case. The Buncampers through their attorney Jairo Bloem raised several technicalities and asked that the judge to throw out the entire case since the charges are linked. The Buncampers are being prosecuted for selling the economic rights of Government lease land. Bloem said that Buncampers were not treated equally simply because Maria Buncamper Molanus is a politician.
So far there have been four management hearing of the case dating back to January 7th 2015. The three witnesses that have to be heard is a request from the attorney representing the Buncampers, they are Public Prosecutor Gonda Van der Wulp, an RST detective F. Machielsen and Claudius Anthony Buncamper Jr. Attorney Bloem wanted these witnesses to be heard in order for the court to understand why Chief Prosecutor Ton Maan removed Prosecutor Van der Wulp from the case. Bloem told the court that Prosecutor Van der Wulp committed some serious violations when she took pictures with her personal cellular phone during a house search at the Buncampers residence also about a report she wrote that has incorrect information. As for the RST detective Bloem told the court he contradicted several witness statements while Buncamper Jr. witnessed the house search and he would be able to tell the investigating judge exactly what transpired during the house search. Last week Wednesday Bloem highlighted several violations including what he described as illegal operations of the RST detectives that are working on St. Maarten that were not officially sworn in by St. Maarten's Minister of Justice.
While the Buncamper’s still have to wait a few more months, the verdict rendered on Wednesday can be considered favorable to them since they got the judge to hear the three witnesses they wanted heard.
