THE HAGUE--The conviction of former member of Parliament of St. Maarten for United St. Maarten Party (USP) Frans Richardson for bribery and abuse of position can be upheld. This is the advice of the Dutch Advocate-General to the Supreme Court (Hoge Raad) as published on Tuesday.
In January 2024, the Joint Court of Justice had increased the prison sentence and election ban of Richardson in the so-called Aquamarine II case. This case pertains to the construction of the Bureau Telecommunication and Post (BTP) building and its maintenance contract.
Richardson was sentenced at the time to 19 months in prison. The judges gave Richardson 20 months behind bars, but took a month off because the case had been delayed in coming to court. The high court judges also imposed a five-year ban on his right to be elected to public office.
The Joint Court also confirmed the lower court’s ruling in the dispossession case, which obliged Richardson to pay almost NAF. 193,000 in ill-gotten wealth.
In November 2021, the lower court sentenced Richardson to 12 months in prison and gave him a three-year electoral ban. In the appeals trial late 2023, the solicitor-general demanded 17 months in prison and a 41-month electoral ban.
Richardson has always denied any involvement in bribery and abuse of posi-tion. His lawyer had requested that the Supreme Court declare the verdict null and void and submitted a number of cassation complaints. Those complaints fo-cused, amongst other things, on the evidence of bribery and the duration of the electoral ban.
In her advice, the Advocate-General opined that the Joint Court of Justice had established official bribery. The Joint Court also ruled on good grounds that the suspect, as member of the parliamentary committee, had a supervisory role of the maintenance contract. The Advocate-General believes that the declaration of proof for both punishable acts was amply motivated.
As far as the imposed punishment of an electoral ban of 5 years is concerned, the Advocate-General believes the Joint Court has sufficiently explained why it has deviated from the sentencing in first instance and the request for a shorter electoral ban by the attorney general. The Advocate-General therefore advises the Supreme Court to confirm the verdict of the Joint Court.
The Supreme Court is expected to rule December 2, 2025.
