The former Prime Minister Curacao finally sentenced NOS

Former Prime Minister Gerrit Schotte of Curacao must be jailed for three years. He can not also be a candidate in parliamentary elections before five years. In the Netherlands, the Supreme Court sees no reason to overturn the judgment. The pain of his life partner, Cicely van der Dijs, also continues. It must be nine months.

The first prime minister of Autonomous Curaçao was sentenced for both the trial and for the appeal of corruption, forgery and money laundering. At the time, the court found that Schotte had taken money from Francesco Corallo, an Italian casino boss in St. Martin. The money was used for an election campaign by the Schottes party, the Movementu Futuro Kòrsou (MFK).

In exchange for this money, Corallo would gain control of the government. For example, in the previous trial against Schotte, Corallo decided who would become minister. According to the public prosecutor, Schotte served more the patron of the Italian casino than the people.

Gross errors

Attorney Geert-Jan Knoops, who argued on appeal and in the Supreme Court, found that Schotte should not be prosecuted because the Willemstad justice allegedly made serious mistakes

. For example, at the start of the investigation, Schotte would not have been suspected and political motives of justice would have determined the early stages of a criminal investigation. There would be an active search for evidence.

During the course of the proceedings, a false representation of the conduct of the investigation would then have been made, so that the charges could be the subject of an investigation. According to Knoops, Willemstad's public prosecutor's office is therefore inadmissible and the evidence obtained should have been excluded.

Information leak

The Attorney General of the Supreme Court has already ruled that the prosecutor had prosecuted at the time. there was sufficient suspicion and that it was in keeping with the defense to rebut the evidence against Schotte.

Part of the evidence against the former prime minister comes from the leak of information from the Curaçao Security Service (VDC) and the unusual transaction processing center. But according to the Supreme Court, this can not be attributed to the public prosecutor.