Authorities made mistakes, so
Venezuelan woman gets permit
PHILIPSBURG--A nineteen-year-old woman from Venezuela who had filed an injunction against Lt. Governor Franklyn Richards has been granted permission to reside in St. Maarten after all.
The matter was settled out of court because some mistakes had been made by the authorities, the court was told Monday.
The injunction was originally scheduled for hearing last Wednesday, but Richards' legal representative indicated then that the Lt. Governor needed more time to study the relevant documents, and requested a postponement of the case.
The woman's lawyer Jairo Bloem told the Court he had no objection to a postponement on the condition that his client would be released from detention.
The Court granted this request and the case was postponed until Monday.
The young woman contested Richards' decision to reject her request for a residence permit.
She was arrested by the Immigration Department two weeks ago because she was not in the possession of the required legal documents to reside on the island.
The case was at the heart of a controversy, because after she had been released by the immigration authorities on the intervention of both the Lt. Governor and a commissioner of the Island Government, she was rearrested and detained by the police/immigration authorities pending her repatriation.
When the case was called in court yesterday, attorney Amador Muller, representing the Lt. Governor, stated that his client had studied all the documents in this case and had come to the conclusion that the decision to turn down the woman's request for a residence permit had been based on wrong information.
"Some mistakes have been made in this case. As the Lt. Governor didn't want to make this woman the victim of the situation, it was decided to grant her a residence permit after all," Muller told the court.
St Maarten Apartment for vacation rental
