The lottery boss was awaited by family, friends, employees and sympathisers as he exited the SDDK prison.
WILLEMSTAD--Robbie dos Santos walked out of Curaçao’s SDKK prison after a three-judge panel saw no pressing reasons to keep him detained for his alleged involvement in organising the murder of politician Helmin Wiels in 2013. The owner of Robbie’s Lottery had been held for a month.
His lawyers Eldon Sulvaran and Stijn Franken, former lawyer of Dutch criminal Willem Holleeder, had pleaded with the Appeals Court to release their client. Employees of the lottery office chain had also demonstrated in recent days to free their boss.
The Prosecutor’s Office suspects Dos Santos of ordering his half-brother, former Finance Minister for MFK George Jamaloodin, to have Wiels killed. In August Jamaloodin was sentenced to 28 years in prison for “provoking” the paid assassination of Wiels.
The first directional hearing in Jamaloodin’s appeal case is scheduled for January 9.
Wiels was shot dead on May 5, 2013. He was then political leader of “Pueblo Soberano” (PS).
Wiels was investigating, among other things, SMS lottery sales in Curaçao and St. Maarten. The “hit” by already sentenced hired killers of the No Limit Soldiers (NLS) gang in Koraal Specht may have been connected to that.
