Marcel Loor is
free man again
PHILIPSBURG--Former police commissioner Marcel Loor is a free man again. The Joint Court of the Netherlands Antilles and Aruba ordered Loor’s immediate release from prison after it established in a closed-door session on Wednesday afternoon that he was eligible for early release for good behaviour.
Outside the Courthouse, a happy and slightly overwhelmed Loor was reunited with his equally elated partner-in-life Charlene Craig. Asked about his plans for the future, Loor said he was going to buy ice creams for his children. “And I am planning to go on a long vacation,” he said.
Loor (39) was sentenced in the Court of First Instance in November 2007 to four years in prison for forgery, bribery, tax evasion and money laundering.
The Joint Court of the Netherlands Antilles and Aruba annulled that ruling in April and sentenced Loor to 24 months, six of which were suspended, with three years’ probation and payment of a NAf. 15,000 fine.
The three judges of the Joint Court found the former Head of St. Maarten’s Immigration and Naturalisation Department guilty of forgery of Immigration re-entry forms between January 2002 and June 2007.
The Court further found him guilty of defrauding the Coast Guard of more than NAf. 230,000 in rent allowance, income tax evasion, the forgery of requests to lower wage taxes, and of money laundering by depositing sums derived from fraud, tax crimes and other yet-to-be-uncovered sources in an offshore company in Nevis.
Loor had been in detention since June 10, 2007. In certain cases, prisoners are entitled to a reduction of one third of their jail time. Loor had been sitting out two-thirds of his time in jail on Friday, June 13.
Tuesday’s court hearing was in fact nothing more than a formality, explained his legal representative, attorney-at-law Richard Gibson Jr. He said the Prosecutor’s Office didn’t have any objections to Loor’s early release.
The appeal launched against Loor’s conviction with the Supreme Court in The Hague is still pending. It is not yet known when this case will be handled. Loor, who maintains his innocence, will be represented by well-known attorney Gerard Spong.
Loor’s girlfriend Charlene Craig was convicted by the Court in May to 20 months, five of which were suspended, for fraud, forgery and money laundering. The judge indicated during her trial that Craig and Loor would not be detained at the same time, so that one of them would be able to take care of the couple’s two minor children.
Now that Loor is released, it will be Craig’s turn to do her time in jail. However, it reportedly is not expected that she will be incarcerated before August or September.
