Holiday convicted of
forgery, may appeal
PHILIPSBURG--Although he refused to speak with the media, former police chief commissioner Derrick Holiday’s demeanour revealed Wednesday that he was not pleased with his conviction by the Court of First Instance on forgery charges. He is expected to appeal his sentence of four months suspended with three years’ probation and a NAf. 10,000 fine.
Attorney-at-law Roeland Zwanikken of Zwanikken, Snow, Essed Law Firm said Wednesday that despite the fact that the Court had not followed Prosecutor Maarten Hemelaar’s request to ban Holiday from the Police Force for five years, “the disappointment prevailed” that their client had not been acquitted on all charges.
Zwanikken said in an invited comment that Holiday was of the opinion that he had not committed any crime. Zwanikken said that although no decision had been made as yet, it was “almost certain” that an appeal would be launched.
In his written verdict, Judge Rob Goossens indicated that he considered it proven that Holiday had signed 43 forged Immigration re-entry documents between April and August 2004.
The Judge also considered it proven that Holiday had forged documents to obtain a rent allowance, but following the Prosecutor’s advice, acquitted him on the charge that he had also violated the Federal Ordinance on Admittance and Expulsion LTU between October and December 2006.
The Court stated in its ruling that Holiday had known that the re-entry documents had been developed by former chief of immigration Marcel Loor outside the NAVAS system, “because the problem of the many illegal residents on the island could not be solved with that system, and because the so-called grace periods (between October 2001 and February 2002) had not been sufficient.”
Court said there was enough proof that these documents had been made up falsely and were not in line with the NAVAS system.
Apparently, Holiday had only wanted to make the problems with illegal residents more manageable, but in doing so had used improper means, the Court stated. A chief commissioner should have refrained from doing this, and therefore Holiday deserved punishment, Judge Goossens stated, but not to the extent that he should be discharged as a police officer.
Windward Islands Prosecutor’s Office Chef de Poste Taco Stein said his organisation had not made a decision yet concerning a possible appeal. But Stein said it was “remarkable” that the Judge had not followed the Prosecutor’s request to ban Holiday from working with the police for a period of five years.
He said it would still be possible for the Minister of Justice to have Holiday removed from the Police Force, but this would require a different procedure in a civil court of justice.
