Unbiased look at the Sint Maarten Elections
~ Appeal court ruling ~
PHILIPSBURG--The Public Prosecution services said on Wednesday that it shares the view of the Court that the role of United People's (UP) party leaders was "not sufficiently investigated" in the Masbangu vote-buying case, but said it had already made a statement in court.
The Prosecutor's Office has appealed the Court's decision to throw out the case. The Masbangu investigation surrounds the UP paying persons to vote for the party in the September 2010 elections.
The judge had declared the case inadmissible and held it against the Prosecutor's Office that it had decided to prosecute only five suspects, but had failed to investigate the roles of UP and its leadership in the scheme.
Prosecutor Tineke Kamps said in a press release on Wednesday that the prosecutor had explained during the August 4 hearing that the investigation could not have included the leadership of UP as well, "given the limited capacity of the Landsrecherche," the release said. "During the last election period, the Landsrecherche had only one or two detectives. The Prosecution considers that those considerations on capacity and feasibility justify that the Masbangu investigation was kept small. Furthermore, the Prosecution believes that the consequence of inadmissibility goes too far, bearing in mind the jurisprudence of the Supreme Court."
According to prosecutors, the formation of the Landsrecherche is now expanded. "This enables the Landsrecherche to carry out new and deeper investigations. However, the formation of the Landsrecherche is still not at full strength. Some cases, even today, are because of that still waiting [too – Ed.]) long to be investigated or have been investigated insufficiently," the release said. "The prosecutor has already brought the lack of capacity to the attention of the minister of justice."
According to the Court, the Prosecutor's Office had been in default. It had given the impression it was administering "class justice" in its decision to prosecute only the "vote-sellers," who had stated they had asked for money because they were in financial trouble.
In itself, the Judge considered it proven that suspects A.R.W.M. (43), C.J.L.C. (45) and R.C.H.J. (63) had sold their votes in exchange for money and that UP representative R.H. (60) had offered money in exchange for their votes.
The case against a fifth suspect, G.P.W. (50), was thrown out because she had passed away on June 13. Kamps said referring to the principle of equality and the prohibition of arbitrariness, the Court found that the prosecution lost its right to prosecute, since the role of the leadership of the UP was not sufficiently investigated.
