PHILIPSBURG, Sint Maarten — Following today’s announcement by the Prosecutor’s Office, the Ministry of Justice confirms that custody was secured in both cases within the applicable legal framework. Neither suspect was released.
The placement in Curaçao was arranged under the mutual arrangement between Sint Maarten, Curaçao, Aruba and the Netherlands concerning the shared use of detention capacity (ORD). The ORD is not a contingency of last resort. It is a standing Kingdom instrument, and in this case it did what the four countries designed it to do. The Ministry thanks the authorities of Curaçao for the speed of their response.
Acting on a signal of acute capacity needed from the Prosecutor’s Office, and on a list prepared by the Director of the Point Blanche Prison from the sentence calculations of the detained population, the Minister of Justice applied Article 1:37 of the Criminal Code to grant early conditional release. The statute identifies the convicted person who, relative to the total sentence imposed, is proportionally closest to the statutory conditional-release point. That is a calculation on documented figures, not an open discretion, and the authority is exercised with great restraint.
Under the Detention Sector Reform Program the structural work continues for the new Point Blanche facility. Implemented with UNOPS as a joint investment of Sint Maarten and the Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations, will bring national capacity to 196 places.
“Custody was secured in both cases, lawfully, and within days,” said Minister of Justice Nathalie Tackling. “Our partners in the Kingdom answered, our own instruments held, and the investigation proceeded. We are building the capacity this country needs, and in the meantime we are running the system we have with discipline.”
The Prosecutor’s Office leads the criminal investigation. The Ministry will make no comment on its substance.
