Bloem sets record straight
on allegations against G.Y.
PHILIPSBURG--Attorney Bloem, representing local businessman G.Y. who was released from pre-trial detention Wednesday, says his client was never involved in human trafficking.
Bloem told The Daily Herald his client had received considerable media attention linked to the arrest of Police Commissioner Marcel Loor and that, while the media had tied G.Y. to Loor, the two cases were separate.
Bloem said, “First of all, the Judge of Instruction suspended my client’s detention, because he concluded that the society is no longer in such a state of shock.” Bloem said his client is suspected of paying US $2,000 on one occasion to arrange papers for a loved one and nothing more. Based on that, he was suspected of bribing and soliciting falsified documents.
While detained, Bloem said, G.Y. maintained the truth about his actions to detectives. But Bloem said that what he was pleased with was the judge’s decision to release G.Y. He explained that the charge of bribery was a serious offence, but was more so for civil servants for whom the law was mainly created in order to guide them in their dealings with the public.
He referred to a case involving Benny De Maij, a former commissioner for Curaçao Political Party MAN, who, he said, received the highest jail term in the Netherlands Antilles for accepting bribes, while the persons who had offered the bribes, A. Dos Santos and A. Arends, both received suspended six-month sentences.
They had reportedly bribed De Maij to the tune of NAf.1 million for a telephone company licence in 1996.
Bloem said considering these facts, it was easy to understand why the judge would opt to release his client. Bloem also stated that while the Prosecutor’s Office reserved the right to call anyone as witness in the case, there has been no formal statement coming from G.Y. regarding any other matter, save his own case and he had not been asked to testify in any other case.
