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PHILIPSBURG--United People's (UP) party Member of Parliament (MP) and local businessman Silvio Matser has filed for appeal against his tax-fraud conviction at the Court of First Instance.
Matser's lawyer, attorney-at-law Cor Merx, confirmed that his client had filed for appeal.
The Court on January 7, sentenced the first-term MP to 24 months, 18 of which were suspended, on three years' probation and 240 hours of community service. His now defunct company, Energizer NV, was ordered to pay NAf. 4.5 million in back taxes.
The Prosecutor's Office had requested a sentence of 24 months in jail, eight of which were to be suspended, with two years' probation and payment of a NAf. 4.5 million fine.
Only Matser appealed the sentence. In the Court of First Instance his lawyers, Merx and tax attorney Gert Bergman, had extensively pleaded in their client's defence. They not only contested the amounts in back taxes, but had also pointed out a number of errors in the preliminary investigations and also claimed a company administrator had made the errors in the tax files and not their client.
"The Prosecutor's Office sees no reason to file for appeal," Prosecutor Tineke Kamps stated on behalf of the Prosecutor's Office. It is not yet known when the Joint Court of Justice will be handling the appeal.
The board of opposition party National Alliance (NA) has called for the "immediate" resignation of MP Matser after his conviction. The Constitution (Staatsregeling) of St. Maarten, however, does not immediately prevent the embattled politician from retaining his seat.
In the Constitution, which came into effect on October 10, 2010, it is stated in Article 50 that an MP who has been sentenced in terms of an irrevocable judicial verdict to: A) a term of imprisonment of no less than one year for the commission of an offence for which a national ordinance specifies that the court may also withdraw the right to vote as an ancillary punishment; B) a term of imprisonment for the commission of an offence as described in the Penal Code; or C) a term of imprisonment for the commission of an offence in connection with Article 46 of the Penal Code, which mentions crimes committed by civil servants, shall lose membership of the Parliament by operation of law and may not be re-elected or reappointed as a minister for the duration of the session of the Parliament.
Only if an MP would be irrevocably convicted to a prison sentence of more than one year, and the court would also be authorised by law to withdraw his right to vote would he be forced to give up his seat in Parliament.
The Court may withdraw someone's right to vote, but only for certain crimes that are specifically mentioned in Article 32 of the Penal Code. These include a long list of serious crimes, among which are crimes against the state, such as assaulting the king, the governor or government, treason, espionage and aid to the enemy, but also murder and manslaughter and illegal abortion and euthanasia.
A conviction of election fraud, vote buying or obstruction of elections may also lead to a person losing suffrage.
Forgery of documents and embezzlement are also mentioned, but tax crimes as such are not.
The Court of First Instance found MP Matser guilty of deliberately filing incorrect tax return forms for the payment of wage tax, AOV/AWW pension contributions and health insurance contributions.
Chapter four of the Constitution of St. Maarten also provides for the suspension of an MP "by operation of law" if he is in pre-trial detention in connection with a serious offence or if he has been sentenced by judicial verdict to a prison term under the same conditions as were mentioned above.
Those persons who have lost their membership of Parliament as specified have to be replaced. An MP who has been suspended has to be replaced by a deputy. The MP continues to receive remuneration during his suspension. Those deputising for or replacing a suspended MP have to resign from office at the same time as the other MPs.
