Ex-law enforcement workers
stand trial on forgery charges
PHILIPSBURG--A suspended prison worker and a former employee of the Philipsburg police station stood trial Tuesday on charges of forgery in trying to obtain Immigration documents for several people.
I.H.D.H. (51) and R.C.W. (48) were both accused of having attempted to obtain temporary residence permits for illegal residents between January 4 and December 19, 2006. They did so by seeking Dutch passports holders who were prepared to sign false cohabitation contracts with their clients at a notary’s office.
The two women were also accused of having committed forgery in drafting these contracts and with making false job letters and pay slips.
For these crimes, Prosecutor Manon Ridderbeks asked for suspended prison sentences of 24 months, eight of which to be suspended, with two years’ probation.
Each woman pointed at the other as the one who had organised the scheme. Suspended prison worker I.H.D.H. only admitted that she had made several false job letters on R.C.W.’s request.
R.C.W. in her turn said she had only searched for people with Dutch passports and that her partner had arranged all the necessary paperwork.
The women’s “clients” had to pay for their services. A forged job letter, for example, cost US $150.
According to Prosecutor Ridderbeks, it did not matter who exactly had done what. She held both suspects equally responsible for this joint operation. She held it against both suspects that as workers in the judiciary system they had violated the rules concerning immigration and in doing so had tarnished the integrity of law enforcement on the island.
Attorney-at-law Zylena Bary stated on behalf of her client R.C.W. that in itself it was not illegal to help immigrants in obtaining all the documents they needed to be admitted to the island.
She said I.H.D.H. had acted as the “queen of the world” in this case and pleaded for a fully suspended sentence for her client.
Attorney Jairo Bloem stated that the evidence against his client I.H.D.H. was “thin.” Furthermore, he requested that the Court to declare the Prosecutor’s case against his client inadmissible.
According to Bloem, suspects in similar cases as his client’s had been offered “transactions” in the form of payment of fines, and I.H.D.H. should have been treated equally. Bloem further said this was a case of undue delay, because almost two years had passed since these two suspects were arrested.
Judge Rick Smid will present his ruling on October 21.
