Corallo-visit frustrated

About a month ago, this newspaper made its first attempts to arrange a visit to casino owner Francesco Corallo who is detained at the Philipsburg police station since December 13 of last year. We started getting a funny feeling about the time the Common Court of Justice is taking to set a date for an extradition hearing.

Our first call was to Chief Inspector Ricardo Henson, the spokesman of the police force. He referred us to the prosecutor’s office.

Chief prosecutor Ton Maan let us know that there are no legal objections against such a visit, because Mr. Corallo is not in restricted custody. He is in extradition detention. But the decision about the request had to be taken by the director of the prison, spokesman Gino Bernadina of the prosecutor’s office let us know.

Question: Is Mr. Corallo then detained in Pointe Blanche?

Answer: yes.

We thought that would make things easier for us by just going to the prison’s visiting hours on Thursdays. No permission needed. But when we got there, the guard at the gate informed us that Mr. Corallo was downtown – at the police station.

So on a Friday morning we went back to the police station to see if we could visit him there. That is where we met Mr. Corallo’s wife and his brother. We quickly understood that the family has just thirty minutes of visiting rights per week. That we did not want to use part of that family time for our visit is of course a no-brainer.

So we asked Mr. Corallo’s wife to ask her husband whether he was interested in speaking with us. The lady came back with an affirmative reaction.

Then we approached the director of the prison, at the time Edward Rohan with permission for a visit. Rohan wanted a message from Mr. Corallo’s attorney, saying that there is no objection to our visit. The attorney’s office promptly emailed Rohan.

By then the moment arrived where Rohan was about to be sent on a leave of absence and he did not answer our phone calls anymore.

We approached the Secretary-General at the Ministry of Justice, Rueben Thomspon, who was very helpful. When he was free to do so, he gave us the phone number of Inspector Steven Carty, who has assumed the task of Rohan at Pointe Blanche.

Mr. Carty said that he had no access to the files of Rohan; could we send another email? The attorney’s office did just that.

Then Mr. Carty – who had of course a lot on his hands with restoring order in the prison – let us know that he had to consult with the minister of justice.

Next time we called, he said that he needed an official letter from the attorney’s office.

We went back to SG Thompson to complain about this.

After several more phone calls, Thompson put us in touch with the director of the minister’s cabinet, Len Dijkstra. Also a very helpful man but – as he told us – just the messenger, not someone with authority to interfere in the orison director’s decisions.

And what he told us did not make us happy at all, because the director of the prison had decided to deny our request.

Why? Well, you know, the security situation at the prison – that sort of thing.

But wait a minute, we said. Mr. Corallo is not in Pointe Blanche; he is at the police station.

Okay, but the prison director does not want you to have an interview there. He fears a precedent and that this could lead to more similar quests in the future.

We thanked Mr. Dijkstra for his efforts. At least we know now where we stand.

And our conclusion is simple. The basis for this refusal, after giving us the runaround for almost a month, is pure bullshit.

Mr. Corallo is in extradition detention at the request of Italian authorities and based on nebulous accusations. God knows that the Italian justice system could do with a serious upgrade (remember the Amanda Knox case?). There is no local ongoing investigation that could be frustrated by an interview. Mr. Corallo is free to speak with whomever he wants, were it not that the prison director stands in the way of people like us who have a legit reason for wanting to meet with him.

We’re not sure what our next move will be, but we will not let this go. We demand access to Mr. Corallo, a detainee who is a suspect in an Italian investigation and who has been held by now for almost ninety days without any news about a possible date for his extradition hearing.