PHILIPSBURG--The three Syrian nationals who were held at Princess Juliana International Airport SXM on November 14, for presenting false passports were sentenced Wednesday, to suspended prison sentences.
The men in question, identified as Issa Rasste (26), Shanto Bahi (34) and Salaiman Hasan (22), were arrested on the spot and detained by police.
Using false travel documents is a crime based on article 2:184 lid 2 or article 2:186a of the Penal Code. The men presented false Greek passports upon their arrival in St. Maarten. For this crime they were all sentenced to three months suspended, on three years’ probation. As a consequence, they will now be handed over to Immigration authorities for their expulsion from St. Maarten. They will presumably be sent back to Haiti, the country from which they flew into St. Maarten.
The Syrians fled from Syria to Turkey and had wanted to travel to Europe to be united with family members in Germany, Denmark or the Netherlands.
The men, however, did not obtain a so-called Schengen visa to visit European Union (EU) member states. Instead, they used their Syrian passports to travel to Brazil. There, they ended up in the hands of a human smuggler. This person was arrested with the three Syrians losing their passports in the arrest.
Another human smuggler provided them with Greek passports with which they travelled to St. Maarten, via the Dominican Republic and Haiti. It was their intention to fly into Europe via St. Maarten.
Questioned by Prosecutor Martin van Nes as to how they had obtained money to travel the world over, all defendants said they had borrowed from family members such as their uncles.
The Prosecutor said he understood the difficult situation in which the men had been in war-stricken Syria and also during their escape, but said it was a punishable act to use a false passport or a travel document that does not contain personal data. He recommended the Court to sentence all three suspects to 32 days.
Attorney-at law Safira Ibrahim did not contest the charges, but said her clients did not want to go back to Haiti or Syria and had acted in an emergency situation. “This is a case of actual and concrete need,” the lawyer said in pleading for her clients’ dismissal of prosecution.
All men told the Court they had no other choice but to flee their country. Two of them said they were Kurds and fled from Islamic State (IS) out of fear from being killed by militants.
The Judge said the Syrians had found themselves in an emergency situation, but this could not be directly linked to them being caught at the airport with false passports in their hands.
The Judge said a pardon would be going too far. Instead, he impose a suspended sentence and ordered the men’s detention lifted.
