SXMElections.com

WILLEMSTAD--The Prosecutor’s Office in Curaçao was unable to prove that Burney “Nini” Fonseca (45) had indeed been the intermediary between those who executed the murder of politician Helmin Magno Wiels in 2013 and the intellectual authors, said his lawyer Marije Vaders on Friday, asking for a full acquittal of her client.

She said convicted triggerman Elvis “Monster” Kuwas had lied several times in his testimony and asked the court to hold him in contempt for perjury.

Fonseca, who so far had refused to talk, made use of the last word in the “Maximus” trial by video conference from prison in the Netherlands, where he is serving a drugs-related sentence. He claimed his innocence, saying there is no evidence linking him to the supposedly paid hit, but only hearsay, rumours and fairy tales. “You can’t be a little pregnant or guilty. I’m not guilty,” he added.

Kuwas had testified in court under heavy surveillance by four heavily armed officers. He was dressed in a grey jogging pants and white T-shirt covered by a bulletproof vest.

This protection was out of fear that the already sentenced killer would suffer the same fate as his accomplice Raul “Bolle” Martinez, who was himself murdered days following the then parliamentarian’s assassination.

Kuwas declared that Fonseca had promised him NAf. 250,000 for the job. Afterwards Luigi “Pretu” Florentina, who later committed suicide in his holding cell at the Barber police station, gave him only NAf. 100,000 and promised the rest would come later, but he never got that money. “Both Nini and Pretu are the same. Nini kept everything for himself!”

Vaders wanted to know from Kuwas whether he had made a deal with the prosecution. “No,” he answered. The attorney then asked what kind of agreement he had with Prosecutor Rip. “Nothing; I already said that,” responded a visibly annoyed Kuwas. Vaders insisted: “Did you not sign a document; what kind of document?”

Rip acknowledged that in exchange for statements that would be verified Kuwas was only granted a transfer to The Netherlands for his pre-trial detention and to serve his subsequent sentence there.

Vaders pointed to many inconsistencies in the testimony of Kuwas going back to the “Magnus” case targeting the actual killers. She also said other murder investigations such as “Sangura” and “No Limit” had shown Florentina was able to finance such crimes himself.

According to the prosecution the first phase in solving this shocking political assassination almost four years ago was to find the executors of the murder and the second phase is the case against the intermediary.

The third phase will be bringing to justice those who supposedly paid to take out the controversial politician. The two names mentioned were former Minister of Finance during the Schotte-cabinet George “Jorge” Jamaloodin and his half-brother Robbie dos Santos, owner of Robbie’s Lottery (see related story).

The verdict is scheduled for Thursday, May 11 at 9:30am.