PHILIPSBURG--The Judge in the Court of First Instance, on Thursday, suspended the preliminary hearing in the so-called “Octopus” investigation for an indefinite time. This is to allow additional hearings of witnesses and to give defence lawyers time to listen to wiretapped telephone conversations that form a significant part of the evidence against their clients.
“Octopus” is the code name for the investigation into the alleged vote-buying fraud during the 2014 parliamentary election.
Three suspects appeared in Court on Thursday: F.L.A. (46), W.F.B. (30) and E.E.L.F. (35) with their lawyers Shaira Bommel and Marije Vaders.
Suspect R.G.K. (48) had informed the Court by letter that he would not be present at Thursday’s procedural hearing. Attorney-at-law Cor Merx had also sent correspondence to the Court in which he stated that he and his client incoming Member of Parliament (MP) for United St. Maarten (US party) Silvio Matser (49) would not appear in Court because Matser was not served with the summons.
During the previous hearing of September 21, Merx had told the Court that his client was not present for medical reasons. Matser got scared after he was confronted by six police officers and a bailiff who presented him with the summons to appear in Court, Merx explained at the time.
Prosecutor Martin van Nes informed the Court that this time it proved impossible to serve Matser with the summons, as he could not be found at his home address on September 28, October 4, and on October 5, and his girlfriend declined to receive the summons on his behalf.
The demeanour of the suspect and his lawyer may give the impression that they are trying to stall the hearing in this case, but the Judge had no other choice but to declare Matser’s summons invalid.
All defendants are suspected of participating in a criminal organisation and in the buying of votes, allegedly committed between August 18 and 29, 2014.
Matser is being accused of having made phone calls to Prison Director Edward Rohan to obtain information about the procedures during elections at the House of Detention, and about the number of eligible voters with Dutch nationality among the prison population.
Rohan confirmed that such telephone conversations had taken place and that he had provided the then candidate for United People’s (UP) party with the requested information, which included a list of eligible inmates in the Prison, the Prosecutor informed the Court last month.
Matser’s co-defendants are all suspected of having cooperated with the scheme to recruit voters for UP or Matser in exchange for payment of US $100 in prison canteen money, or the handing out of beach and market stall licences, or assistance in obtaining a chauffeur’s job. In this way some 13 prison inmates were approached with requests to cast their votes for UP, the Prosecutor stated.
In the investigation, which is led by the Prosecutor’s Office and carried out by the National Detectives Agency, some 20 persons were considered suspects. One of those could not be traced and another suspect has passed away. A total of 14 suspects were detained when the investigation started.
During Thursday’s hearing, the lawyers also requested telephone information obtained in other criminal investigations to be included in the Octopus case file. These concern the investigations into the killing of Roberto Gumbs in Middle Region on November 24, 2015, and the so-called “Maas” investigation into a bank robbery in 2014, in which suspect R. allegedly was involved.
The Judge allowed the hearing of witnesses who made incriminating statements about the suspects, but declined the adding of the results of other investigations to the Octopus file, because relevant parts of these investigations were already included.
The Court ordered that those telephone conversations that are in the file should be worked out integrally and in detail and made available to the defence either at the Police Station or with the National Detectives, or if necessary on a CD provided that information “does not end up on the street.”
