PHILIPSBURG — The RST arrested Member of Parliament Rolando Brison on Friday on suspicions of bribery and abuse of power and released him again on Saturday. While a press release from the prosecutor’s office does not mention the arrested politician by name, former Minister of Finance Michael Ferrier was quick with posting a picture of Brison and the text: “Detained.” Several media have reported that the arrested politician is indeed MP Brison.
Under the supervision of the judge of instruction, officers conducted searches at Brison’s residence and at his office in the parliament building.
Asked about the identity of the arrested politician, the prosecutor’s office said that it is not prepared to release the name of the suspect at this stage of the investigation, or even provide the media with his initials.
Keeping Brison detained was not an option, because he would have had to be transferred to the Pointe Blanche prison this week. And there is no place in the prison. The prosecutor’s office said in a press release that the arrested and now released politician remains a suspect in the Lissabon-investigation. This probe is based on the suspicion that Brison took bribes and abused his position. More arrests and searches are not ruled out.
The Lissabon-investigation is conducted by the Detective Cooperation Team RST under the direction of the central team of the attorney general’s office of Curacao, St. Maarten, Bonaire, Statia and Saba.
The prosecutor’s office noted that it does not need permission from the appeals court for the investigation. Such permission becomes only opportune when the case is ready to go to court and when prosecutors are about to issue a summons to appear in court against Bison.
Read more: MP Brison arrested on suspicions of bribery
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Opinion piece: United Perpetrators (UPDATED)
St. Maarten’s reputation got another wallop when the RST arrested Member of Parliament Rolando Brison on Friday and released him again on Saturday evening. The suspicions against the MP are bribery and abuse of power. He remains a suspect.
When prosecutors suspect you of something, it does not necessarily mean that you are guilty. That applies to all citizens and also to Brison.
But when you are a public figure, like Brison is as a member of parliament, the dynamics change dramatically. On one side of the fence, people have a tendency to scream guilty. On the other side of the fence are the suspect’s supporters who will maintain that he would never do a thing like that. Smack in the middle are politicians who don’t want to burn their fingers on such delicate matters and they proclaim therefore that justice must run its course.
Unfortunately, our country can make a rather impressive list of politicians who ended up on the wrong side of the law. For instance: Theo Heyliger, Claudius Buncamper, Chanel Brownbill, Frans Richardson, and now – if only as a suspect – Rolando Brison.
It is not our role to defend Brison. Nor is it our role to hang him high. We observe and from where we are looking at this case, things don’t look to bright for him. Why?
This is because politicians, other than common mortals, have built an additional layer of protection into the law. Prosecutors cannot just go after politicians because they suspect them of criminal wrongdoing. The prosecutors have to go to the appeals court in Curacao first to ask permission to prosecute a politician. Right now, they are not prosecuting, they are investigating. That is probably also the reason why the prosecutor’s office declined to publish the name or even the initials of the parliamentarians they arrested on Friday.
Article 2 of the national ordinance that regulates the prosecuting of politicians states: “Prosecuting a politician who is suspected of a crime only takes place after an order to prosecute from the Appeals Court (in Dutch: het Hof), after a demand by the attorney-general.”
This mechanism was put in place to prevent politically motivated prosecution. So prosecutors first have to convince three judges in Curacao that they have a case. Or, to say this in a different way, that the suspicions they have are based on something that has a reasonable chance of getting a conviction. If their arguments are not convincing enough, the court will withhold permission.
The national ordinance says however nothing about investigating wrongdoing by a politician. That does not require permission from the court. The prosecutor’s office has pointed out that this rule only comes into play when the case is ready to go to court and when there is an intention to issue a summons against the suspect.
The expression that there is no smoke without fire comes to mind. In this case, there must be a lot of smoke (otherwise there would not be an investigation, let alone an arrest), making me think that the fire cannot be far away.
A crypto currency promoter called Marc posted a Youtube video this past weekend in which he refers to Brison’s support for crypto, saying that his arrest, justified or not, makes the digital currency look bad. In the past, Brison has requested that his MP-salary be paid in crypto. Finance Minister Ardwell Irion told StMaartenNews.com that he did indeed receive the request, but that it was never executed.
What do politicians do when they are caught with their grubby hands in the cookie jar? In many jurisdictions, those politicians would step down in a hurry, usually mumbling something about protecting the integrity of their party, or the reputation of the parliament, combined with a request to respect their privacy.
That is not the tradition in St. Maarten or on any other island of the former Netherlands Antilles. The reason is simple: money. Parliamentarians in St. Maarten receive an abnormal high remuneration for their work. Without the membership of the parliament, most of them have nothing. They could end up selling soup to survive and we have to admit: that is not an attractive perspective.
Brison, still leader of the UP, will simply go through the motions, maybe admit that he made (again) a mistake, laughing all the way to the bank. This does not make St. Maarten look good. It does not make the parliament look good. And it certainly does not make the UP, up to now known as the United People’s party – look any good. Maybe they ought to change their name for the next elections to United Perpetrators.
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Press Release from the Public Prosecutor’s Office
18 March 2023
Member of Parliament released, remains suspect
On 18 March 2023, the Member of Parliament of Sint Maarten, arrested on 17 March, has been released from custody. He remains a suspect in the ongoing a criminal investigation called “Lissabon”.
The MP is suspected taking bribes and abusing his position.
The investigation is ongoing and further arrests or searches are not ruled out.
The “Lissabon” investigation is being conducted by RST under the direction of the Central Team of the Attorney General’s Office of Curaçao, St. Maarten, Bonaire, St. Eustatius and Saba.
The Central Team focuses on a specialized approach to combat corruption and subversive crimes.
[END PRESS RELEASE]
