PHILIPSBURG--The Court of First Instance ordered the re-trial Wednesday of two men suspected of involvement in the trafficking of a group of undocumented Cubans into St. Maarten in November 2010.
Judge Monique Keppels' decision was based on the fact that, after the March 2 hearing in the cases of M.D.T. (29) of Cuba and M.L.M. (36) of St. Lucia, she had received a message from the Prosecutor's Office, indicating that a document in the case file concerning the arrival of Cubans in Tortola on September 19, 2010 had been incorrect.
Seeing that this new piece of information had been received after the court hearing had been closed and the suspects had not had the opportunity to respond to it, the judge decided to re-open the trial on June 9. The judge also lifted the suspects' pre-trial detention.
The Prosecutor's Office had demanded 30 months against M.L.M. and had asked the Court to convict M.D.T. to 42 months for the roles they had allegedly played in the shipment of six Cuban nationals on board the Braveheart from St. Lucia via Dominica to St. Maarten.
According to M.L.M., he had been merely a passenger on board the boat of a close friend, who had offered him a ride to St. Maarten to do some shopping. He had claimed he knew nothing of any arrangement to have the Cubans brought to St. Maarten en route to US territories.
M.D.T. had stated he only had been doing a favour for a friend when he had boarded a flight to St. Maarten from Florida with US $2,000 to deliver to E.M.B., who would ensure that two of the Cuban women in the group travelled to Florida.
However, Prosecutor Manon Ridderbeks had been convinced otherwise. She had said M.L.M. must have known of his friend's movements after having made a trip with him in September, when six of the Cubans discovered in St. Maarten were noted by Immigration to have been deported from Tortola.
With M.L.M. on board the Braveheart in November 2010, these Cubans had been taken from St. Lucia to Dominica, where more Cubans had been picked up. All the while, M.L.M. had said he knew nothing of a case of human smuggling and denied having arrived in Tortola in September 2010, although three of the Cubans had told police in their reports in St. Maarten, when arrested in November 2010, that they had recognised M.L.M. as one of the boat's captains.
M.L.M. had also claimed he had never been promised a reward for making the November trip to St. Maarten. He had said it was his custom to tag along with his friend on boat trips, which often took them to surrounding islands like Tortola.
However, Prosecutor Ridderbeks had held M.L.M.'s role to be that of the second captain. M.L.M.'s lawyer Johan de Vrieze had stressed that his client had not had a particular role on the trip to St. Maarten and had asked for his client's acquittal.
The Prosecutor's Office had also accused M.D.T. of involvement in the human trafficking operation between the islands to get Cubans into the US territories.
Asking for a reduced sentence, his lawyer Brenda Brooks had said it was far-fetched to assume her client would have had the capacity to orchestrate such an operation.
No comments:
Post a Comment