PHILIPSBURG – When the Common Court of Justice denied a request from the Attorney-General to prosecute MP Christophe Emmanuel for alleged irregularities with granting land in long lease when he was minister of Public Housing, Urban Planning, Environment and Infrastructure (VROMI) in 2017, Grisha Heyliger-Marten congratulated Emmanuel in a press statement, claiming that he had been “vindicated” for his “wrongful arrest on October 22, 2019.”
Heyliger’s press statement created the impression that Emmanuel had done absolutely nothing wrong. “Today I proudly congratulate MP Emmanuel on his victory,” she stated.
But what was really going on? The Common Court of Justice denied the Attorney-General’s request to prosecute Emmanuel. The court acknowledged that the investigation against Emmanuel “can raise questions about the issuance of land in long lease and about the involvement of “the suspect.” The results of the investigation are however “insufficient” to conclude that he is guilty of abusing his function, the court ruled.
The Prosecutor’s Office stated in a press release that it cannot prosecute Emmanuel anymore for the charges described in its request to the court, unless new facts and circumstances surface.
The Prosecutor’s Office expressed its disappointment with the court ruling because it makes it impossible to obtain a judgment about the “limits between freedom of policy and abuse of function in the form of favoritism.”
The Prosecutor’s Office ends its press release stating that it is considering the consequences of the court ruling.
Related article: “Without regard to persons,” they claim.
But what is there to consider? From the perspective of criminal justice not much; the investigation has not yielded enough evidence against Emmanuel to justify prosecution. The idea of dragging him into court is dead in the water.
There is, of course, a difference between criminal actions and questionable behavior. That Emmanuel’s behavior was questionable in the dying days of the Marlin-government in the fall of 2017 is at least debatable.
What happened? On November 1, 2017, Emmanuel, then the Minister of VROMI, instructed Domain Affairs to issue around 10,000 square meters of government land in long lease. That day, it was clear that the Marlin-government would be sent packing the next day with a motion of no-confidence. Three days earlier, Emmanuel had gone to the Cadastre office to pay for several certificates of admeasurement. Standard procedure is that the applicants for a lease pay these fees.
VROMI’s department of New Projects issued a negative advice about the plans, but Emmanuel ignored it. All this appears from a letter Emmanuel’s successor, Miklos Giterson sent to the Council of Ministers.
Leaseholders are required to begin construction on their land within six months after receiving their lease. According to New Projects this development would require adjustments to the draining channels of the ring road at a cost of 2 million guilders ($1.1 million) and of the ring road itself. For that purpose another 15,000 square meters of the Great Salt Pond would have to be filled in and that would cut irresponsibly into the pond’s minimum retention capacity.
Even more curious is the list of beneficiaries of Emmanuel’s last-minute decision to issue land in long lease. Emmanuel’s chief of staff Marisha Richardson was among them but after he was told that this would be a conflict of interest, her name was replaced by that of Mansha Property Management, a company that was incorporated on November 7, 2017, and that therefore did not exist on the date the applications for the long leases came in.
Another recipient is the Soualiga Infrastructure Company. According to Minister Giterson, the owner of that company is one Jeffrey Bremer, the spouse or partner of Emmanuel’s chief of staff Marisha Richardson.
The fingerprints of favoritism were therefore all over the issuance of these parcels of land in long lease. In light of the recent court ruling, the question comes to mind how all this is possible and the answer can be found in a national ordinance that deals with issuing government-land in long lease.
One would think that this ordinance sets the rules for granting land in long lease to citizens of St. Maarten. But it does not, at least not for the minister in charge of these matters. In fact, the ordinance gives the minister complete control and authority.
Article 1 states that the minister of VROMI is authorized to issue land in long lease “according to the articles of this chapter.” But the only rules the minister has to follow are that he has to charge an 8 percent annual long lease canon and that the lease term cannot exceed 60 years.
The problem is therefore not so much with Emmanuel’s behavior as with the rules that allow him to do what he did. The idea to suspend the ordinance through a kingdom measure may sound attractive but if the kingdom ever got the idea to do this it would lead to just another row about Dutch meddling in St. Maarten’s internal affairs.
And the politicians who benefit (now or in the future) from this situation – the ability to give government-owned land at will to their friends and cronies – would scream blue murder. Which politicians? All politicians; as long as they all continue to pay lip-service to the principle of integrity (and they do), the authority to issue land in long lease remains under the control of just one man or woman: the Minister of VROMI.
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Related articles:
Prosecutor’s Office considering consequences court verdict
MP Heyliger-Marten congratulates Emanuel
MP Heyliger-Marten congratulates Emanuel
Column: “Without regard to persons,” they claim.
