PHILIPSBURG — The RST arrested Member of Parliament Rolando Brison on Friday on suspicions of bribery and abuse of power. 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.
The prosecutor’s office states in a press release that the arrest is related to 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 did not immediately reply to questions about the case. It remains therefore unclear when the prosecutor’s office submitted a request for permission to prosecute the parliamentarian to the appeals court in Curacao.
Brison’s arrest has immediate consequences for the political balance of power. With his absence, the coalition of the Silveria Jacobs government no longer has a majority in parliament. It can count on the support of seven MPs, equal to the number in the camp of the opposition.
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From United Suspects to United Perpetrators
Opinion Piece
St. Maarten’s reputation got another wallop when the RST arrested Member of Parliament Rolando Brison on Friday. The suspicions against the MP are bribery and abuse of power.
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.
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 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 permission to prosecute), making us think that the fire cannot be far away.
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 – any good. Maybe they ought to change their name to United Perpetrators.
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Press Release from the Public Prosecutor’s Office
17 March 2023
Member of Parliament arrested for bribery
On Friday, March 17, 2023, the Criminal Investigation Team RST arrested a Member of Parliament of Sint Maarten. In addition, searches were conducted by the Chief Judicial Magistrate RC at the suspect’s residence and his workplace at the Parliament Building in Sint Maarten.
The arrest and the house searches took place in connection with a criminal investigation called “Lissabon” where the suspicion is that the Member of Parliament took bribes and abused 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]
