Lawyer to plea in
Merx trial today
PHILIPSBURG--The trial of former Chief Prosecutor of the Windward Islands Cor Merx will reach the final stages this afternoon when attorney-at-law Jairo Bloem reads his plea.
Merx is standing trial on the allegation that he forged legal documents to obtain telephone records of his ex-girlfriend and her new lover. He may end up in jail if Judge Rick Smid follows the prosecutor’s demand to impose a one-year prison sentence.
As a special condition, the judge was also asked to impose a five-year ban on Merx’s employment as a civil servant in the Netherlands Antilles or its legal successor.
Merx confessed he had made up three documents to obtain the telephone records of his ex-girlfriend and her lover, which is only allowed if a person is suspected of a crime. But it is expected Bloem, Merx’s lawyer, will make an effort to prove that it wasn’t his client, but somebody else at the Prosecutor’s Office, who actually drew up these documents.
Bloem may also be pleading for Merx’s acquittal based on the presumption that prior to his departure from St. Maarten in February 2005, Merx had closed a deal with the Prosecutor’s Office that he would not be prosecuted if he resigned and returned to the Netherlands for health reasons.
The Prosecutor’s Office has always denied such a deal, saying it was not aware of any possible crime committed by Merx until after his resignation.
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