PHILIPSBURG–The criminal cases against Claudius and Maria Buncamper concerning an alleged illegal land deal hit another snag on Wednesday as their attorney put the Judge’s impartiality in question.

The Buncamper case, which also involves contractor I.A.H. (47), notary F.E.G. (71), and alleged “figurehead” T.O.W. (69) was scheduled for a procedural hearing concerning the questioning of witnesses.Prior to this hearing, the Joint Court’s Chamber of Recusal convened to hear lawyer Jairo Bloem’s request to challenge Judge Peter Lemaire, who is presiding over the case.

The request to remove Judge Lemaire from the case was filed late Tuesday afternoon and was heard by a three-judge panel in Curaçao during a closed-door video-conference, which lasted approximately two hours.

It is not yet known when the Chamber will give its decision on the request, but it was said that a decision would be made “as soon as possible,” Bloem said.

The Buncamper’s attorney remained tight-lipped about the nature of his request, but said it concerned the Judge’s perceived partiality where it pertained to the Prosecutor’s Office admissibility in its cases against his clients and his position pertaining to the hearing of detectives and other officials within the judiciary about the investigations in this case in particular.

According to the defence, the Prosecutor’s Office has “made mistake after mistake” in dealing with this case and not just in the procedural violations committed during a house search on June 26, 2015, during which the Prosecution had illegally photographed evidence in the Buncamper’s residence.

During a hearing held in September 2015, Judge Lemaire said the contested pictures taken by Prosecutor Gonda van der Wulp, who was immediately removed from this case thereafter, could lead to some “disadvantages” for the defence.

However, the Judge added that it was not clear to him to what extent the defence’s interests had been affected and referred the case back to an Investigative Judge to hear three witnesses.

The two-day hearings in the cases against the Buncampers and their three co-suspects were tentatively rescheduled for March 16 and 17. Pending the outcome of the challenging request, which Bloem said he was not very hopeful of winning, “as requests of such nature are usually turned down,” it is not yet certain of the cases of all five clients will be heard at the same time.

The hearings will concern charges of involvement in fraud, forgery of documents and participation in a criminal organisation, relating to a transaction with a piece of land that had been given on long-lease.

The case against the Buncampers came to light five years ago. In December 2010, documents surfaced in which it was revealed that the Buncampers had sold the economic rights to a plot of land on long-lease to a company named Eco Green N.V., against payment of US $3 million.

Maria Buncamper-Molanus had obtained the right of long-lease of the government property against annual payment of approximately US $10,000 in April 2008, while she was a member of the then-Executive Council.

Three days after Eco Green was established, with figurehead T.O. W. appointed as company director, the Buncampers sold the economic rights to the land to this company.

T.O.W. was a former Department of Public Works employee. Claudius Buncamper was head of this department for years.

The Buncampers are charged not only with fraud and membership in a criminal organisation, but also with tax evasion in relation to payment of profit tax on behalf of Eco Green over the years 2009, 2010 and 2011, and failure to file income tax correctly during 2009 and 2010.

They were charged with forgery of several documents, including a commercial lease agreement between Eco Green and St. Maarten Building Supplies N.V., mortgage documents and a deed concerning the right of long lease.

The Prosecutor’s Office holds all suspects, with the Buncampers leading them, as members in a criminal organisation involved with forgery, tax evasion and the destruction of evidence.

After the hearing of the Recusal Chamber was closed, Judge Lemaitre informed suspects T.O.W., I.A.H. and F.E.G., with the Buncampers sitting in the audience next to their lawyer, that the hearing of the three witnesses were not yet finalised. Therefore, the defendants’ hearings had to be postponed once more.

Lawyers and defendants expressed their dissatisfaction with the lack of progress in this case and with the constant delays.

Judge Lemaitre put all cases in the agenda for trial on March 16-17, “unless there are unexpected procedural obstacles.” The Judge will preside over the cases against all five suspects when the challenging request is turned down. If he is removed from the cases against the Buncampers, he could still handle the cases against their three co-suspects, Lemaitre said.

The Prosecutor’s Office, however, would prefer a joint hearing of all five suspects at the same time, Dounia Benammar stated.

Bron: DailyHerald