A hearing of police suspects in the "Masbangu" Police Bribery case that includes election fraud and vote buying, has once again been postponed and will take place on August 4.
Judge Coen Luijks was presiding on Monday.
The Masbangu Police Bribery Case involves vote buying during the 2010 Country St. Maarten elections which was held on September 17, 2010.
Judge Koen Luijks granted Attorney at Law Peppy Suberan his request to have detective Lucy Gachette questioned by the judge of instruction before they proceed with the case
The Police involved are not just St Maarteners, but are Antillians, R.C.H.J. (62), C.C. (45) and A.R.W.M. (43) are said to have voted for The United People's (UP) party in exchange for $300. Their co-worker Glenda P. Webster (49) is suspected of attempting to receive money for her vote.
UP party representative Roy Heyliger (60) is accused of giving money to the police officials in exchange for their votes.
On February 17 2014, the judge ruled that the Prosecutor's Office should reopen the case. The involvement of UP party leadership and its agents are being called at these trials.
According to Judge Coen Luijks, the case held contradictory statements about the involvement of The United People's Party in the alleged vote buying and bribes given to the defendants.
The Prosecutor's Office had stated it could not be prove that the United People's party had bribed or attempted to bribe persons; however, suspect Roy Heyliger who was not present at Monday's hearing, had said he had acted on the orders of UP party leader Theo Heyliger.
According to the Judge, the Prosecutor's Office had stated it could not be proven that UP had committed punishable acts, but it had filed charges against party representative Roy Heyliger This constituted a serious contradiction, according to the judge.
The additional investigations led former Prosecutor and attorney, Cor Merx to file a recusal request against the judge, which was denied by the Joint Court of Justice in separate proceedings.
At Monday's proceedings, it was decided that neither the Prosecutor's Office nor the suspects and their attorneys deemed it necessary to hear all three members of the United People's party.
The names of Theo Heyliger, Hannibal Gumbs and Ludwig Ouenniche were floated as potential witnesses, but it was decided that the case would be continued, without these witnesses present.
Monday's proceedings concerned a preliminary hearing, during which the suspects' lawyers could submit requests for the hearing of witnesses and other additional investigations.
In the meantime, the Prosecutor's Office added several documents to the case files, among which was an explanation of the Attorney General as to why it took three years and five months before this case was brought to Court.
The Chief of Police and Chief Prosecutor requested the Attorney General's approval of an investigation on October 28, 2010. The request was granted in November 2010, "but only on August 6, 2012, the Chief Prosecutor asked the Attorney General's permission for a criminal investigation. This time-frame raises questions," said Judge Luijks in February.
The National Detectives (Landsrecherche) completed the investigation in this case on February 14, 2013, but the suspects were not summoned until one year later. This may have implications for the so-called reasonability of the time-frame permitted by law between the date of the alleged crime and the actual court hearing.
The Court case is to resume after the summer recess, on August 4. Most likely, proceedings would continue that day with attorney Merx presenting preliminary pleadings on behalf of his client C.J.L.C.
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