Laveist to make statement
in Island Council meeting
~ New lawyer says more arrests coming ~
PHILIPSBURG--Commissioner Louie Laveist has a prepared statement about his future role in government following his eight-day detention to deliver to St. Maarten at today’s Island Council meeting, his new lawyer announced Sunday.
The commissioner believes his arrest almost two weeks ago was political and his statement today, Monday, is to focus on what happens next, attorney-at-law Remco Stomp told The Daily Herald on Sunday. Laveist, also an Island Council member, has been under pressure to resign in the wake of his arrest on October 23 on suspicion of forgery.
Stomp said Laveist would certainly attend today’s meeting of the Island Council to explain his plans for his positions in the Island Council and the Executive Council.
Stomp also explained that he (Stomp) would be able to elaborate further after Laveist had made his statement at the Island Council meeting. “He is going to inform the public about his position,” Stomp said of Laveist’s plans.
The Prosecutor’s Office released Laveist on Thursday after the authorities had concluded interrogating him. The commissioner was held for questioning about his alleged involvement in a scheme to trade employment documents for “donations.” A former executive assistant of his was also held, and released two days later.
Stomp insisted that his client’s arrest had been executed haphazardly, based on a false premise, and that he had been held too long. “Mr. Laveist’s arrest was arbitrary, politically motivated and disproportionate,” Stomp said over the phone, reading from a prepared statement and predicting that more such arrests would follow.
He echoed Laveist’s first lawyer Jairo Bloem’s statements about the commissioner wanting to cooperate with authorities, alluding to his innocence. “Mr. Laveist is fully willing to cooperate with the Justice Department, as he specifically stated before, but he will seriously fight all false accusations,” Stomp said.
Laveist was responsible for the Labour, Public Transportation, Youth and Culture portfolios within the Executive Council at the time of his arrest. However, Democratic Party leader Commissioner Sarah Wescot-Williams, who confirmed that she had communicated with Laveist last week Tuesday, also announced that when the Executive Council met that same day, it had approved the temporary redistribution of Laveist’s portfolios.
Wescot-Williams also announced at that time that the Democratic Party’s position with respect to members of the Island or Executive Council being detained or being investigated was that the person in question, “in the interest of the investigation, should resign.”
She said she was confident that Laveist would exercise “good judgement.”
Laveist and his former executive assistant are expected to face trial early next year.
