PHILIPSBURG – Minister Ferdinand Grapperhaus (Justice and Security) got a firsthand taste of the destruction Hurricane Irma inflicted on St. Maarten during his visit to the island that was preceded by stops in Saba and Statia. On Wednesday afternoon, the minister gave a short press briefing in the conference room of Holland House, together with local Justice Minister Cornelius de Weever and Dutch Representative Chris Johnson. Grapperhaus arrived in St. Maarten right after the second Carnival Parade on Tuesday. On Wednesday he began his day with a meeting with Prime Minister Leona Marlin-Romeo, Justice Minister De Weever and State Secretary…
Author: The Publisher
PHILIPSBURG – The Central Committee meeting about the 2018 budget continues on Thursday morning at 10 a.m. under pressure of a deadline set by State Secretary Raymond Knops who demanded on Wednesday morning an approved budget by Tuesday at midnight the latest; otherwise the Kingdom Council of Ministers will unleash an instruction on St. Maarten. The preliminary budget debate in the Central Committee was not one for the ages. There was no packed public tribune and only a lackluster interest from some twenty-odd online viewers. The topic could not even bring all parliamentarians to Wilhelmina Street. Remarkably absent were Frans…
PHILIPSBURG – Two men who are charged with an attempted robbery at Prime Distributors on December 8, 2016, are facing prison sentences of one to one-and-a-half year. The Court in First Instance will pronounce its rulings on May 23. Sheldon Lionel H. is facing the heaviest punishment: 18 months in prison with deduction of the 86 days he spent in pre-trial custody. The demand against this 38-year old defendant is based on making preparations to commit an armed robbery, firearm and marijuana possession and theft from a neighborhood supermarket on September 8, 2017, in the wake of Hurricane Irma. Co-defendant…
PHILIPSBURG – Todrick Kahim F. will appear in court on July 18 to stand trial for the fatal stabbing of 27-year old Derrick Wilson on November 18 of last year. The 43-year old defendant was arrested shortly after the stabbing that occurred during a fight near a supermarket on Genip Road. While Wilson did not survive the fight, Todrick F. also sustained serious injuries. F. is furthermore facing the execution of a conditional prison sentence of two weeks. That punishment stems from a conviction in March of last year on charges of ill-treatment with a weapon. Four witnesses of the…
Great Bay — Behind every dark cloud there is a silver lining, that was exactly what transpired before the start of the highly anticipated Grand Parade on Monday. The vibrant colors displayed by the troupes was enough cast a long line of brilliance along the route. Some were breathtaking, some mesmerizing while some were tantalizing and it took the almost 24 hours before the announcements was made. It was evident that even the judges had a hard time arriving at a final decision. Nathalie Parotte’s Blue E’Toile won the prize for winning troupe, the 90 member strong troupe was the true…
By Hilbert Haar Imagine this: the court sentences a man for armed robbery to a prison sentence of nine years. He spent already eight months in pretrial custody, so he has one hundred months to go before he roams the streets of Philipsburg again. Right? No. Wrong, because the robber only has to serve two-third of his sentence. In this case, that’s 72 months. But because he has already served eight months in pretrial detention, he will be a free man again after 64 months – that’s five years and four months; quite a difference from the nine-year sentence. Small-time…
By Hilbert Haar Roofs have to be repaired and businesses have to get back on their feet in the wake of Hurricane Irma. All that makes sense. But the real priorities for the country still lie elsewhere, as became evident from an address by Finance Minister Mike Ferrier last week. And those statements made sense as well. Fixing the Princess Juliana International airport is the first priority to shift the sluggish post-Irma economy into higher gear, Ferrier said. Currently, travelers in and out of St. Maarten do not pass through the airport terminal but through a couple of sturdy tents.…
PHILIPSBURG – Financial supervisor Cft urges Minister Mike Ferrier (Finance) to hire technical assistance to increase the capacity at the finance department, including the tax inspectorate. “Possibly technical assistance can be requested and deployed in these fields in the context of the reconstruction,” Cft-chairman Raymond Gradus writes in a letter dated April 26. The Cft furthermore notes that St. Maarten needs additional capacity to finalize the annual financial accounts 2016 and 2017, the financial report over the first quarter of 2018 and the monthly report about the execution of the 2018 budget. The financial supervisor received the execution report over…
PHILIPSBURG – The court in Marigot sentenced a former Dutch policeman for selling forged international driver’s licenses to at least one hundred people on the French side of the island for amounts varying from €600 to €3,000 ($726 to $3,630). The defendant, identified in the French-side newspaper Le Pélican as R. Blomont, owner of a driving school on the Dutch side of the island, most recently worked as a security officer at the airport, but he lost that job because of the investigation into the forged driver’s licenses. The court sentenced the 48-year old defendant to a €2,000 ($2,420) fine,…
by Chris Morvan Technically, you couldn’t argue with what was presented to me for dinner. I had ordered skate with black butter and capers, and the waitress had assured me it came with vegetables – or at least I think she had, because she was speaking French and my grasp of the language is functional but I can still get lost amid the flurries of strange words punctuated by the extended “errrr” they use to tell you they are still speaking but thinking about what comes next.
