Dutch intervention in Aruba with RST and National Detective Agency raises eyebrows
PHILIPSBURG – Alarm bells ought to go off in the Council of Ministers after learning of the Dutch demand that Aruba gives the RST (Detective Cooperation Team) and the National Detective Agency the authority to operate independently of the police force. What happens in Aruba does not necessarily stay there. The Dutch demand is a condition for granting More...
Court orders Schotte to repay Curacao
WILLEMSTAD – Former Prime Minister Gerrit Schotte has to pay 1,844,190 guilders ($1,030,274) to the government of Curacao, the Common Court of Justice ruled on Tuesday. The ruling confirms a decision by the Court More...
Attorneys threaten Minister Richardson with new lawsuit over prison conditions
PHILIPSBURG — The attorneys representing thirty inmates of the Pointe Blanche prison have put the feet of Justice Minister Anna Richardson to the fire with a demand to improve the conditions in the detention More...
Law and order in prison is hard to find
PHILIPSBURG - Internet access, an active Facebook page with nearly two thousand friends, mostly living in St. Maarten, the ability to make or smuggle weapons, and to threaten others physically or virtually: this More...
Minister of Justice reacts to Court ruling and Van Dam motion
PHILIPSBURG — On Friday, June 19, 2020, the Court of First Instance returned with a decision after reviewing a petition filed by 37 inmates and their attorneys against the Government of St. Maarten and the More...
Court denies demand for transfer of inmates to the Netherlands
PHILIPSBURG – The Court in First Instance has declared inadmissible the demand by a group of Pointe Blanche inmates that the country transfers them to safer prisons, either in the Netherlands or Bonaire. The More...
Prosecution settles with accountants in card-swipe fraud
WILLEMSTAD – KPMG Meijburg & Co Caribbean has accepted a settlement of 140,000 guilders ($78,212) from the Public Prosecutor’s Office to prevent criminal prosecution. A manager of the company pays 65,000 More...
Lower prison sentence for Theo Heyliger due to violation of standards
PHILIPSBURG — The judge acknowledges that former Member of Parliament Theo Heyliger has been brutally treated by holding him first in a filthy Philipsburg police cell and then in Bonaire, violating his right More...
Judgements in LARIMAR case
WILLEMSTAD/PHILIPSBURG — In the so-called Larimar case, the St. Maarten Court of First Instance sentenced politician T.H. to a 60-month prison sentence for accepting nearly $4 million in bribes and money More...
Stand by your man
By Hilbert Haar The verdict is in and former parliamentarian Theo Heyliger is facing a 5-year prison sentence for accepting bribes and for money laundering. It is a given that Heyliger will appeal the verdict; More...
