Judge remains on Buncampers case

January 22, 2016 10:00 AM
PHILIPSBURG--Judge Peter Lemaire will remain the magistrate presiding over the criminal cases against Claudius and Maria Buncamper and three co-suspects concerning an alleged illegal land deal.
 
The Buncampers’ lawyer Jairo Bloem had questioned Judge’s impartiality, but the Chamber of Recusal of the Joint Court of Justice stated Thursday that it had not found any wrongdoings on the Judge’s part and turned down the request to take him off the case.
 
Attorney Bloem had sent an e-mail to Lemaire on January 12 requesting that he step down voluntarily. That same day, Lemaire sent a response in which he informed the lawyer and the Prosecutor’s Office that he did not see any grounds to do so. Bloem then filed a formal request to have Lemaire removed.
 
That case was heard by a three-judge panel in Curaçao during a closed-door video-conference the next day, prior to the scheduled pro-forma hearing in the criminal case.
 
During the closed-door hearing, the defence claimed that Judge Lemaire had violated the principles of impartiality and had limited the Buncampers’ rights to defend themselves, it emerged from the Chamber of Recusal’s decision.
 
According to Bloem, Lemaire had not been impartial where it pertained to the admissibility of the Prosecutor’s Office’s cases against his clients. During a hearing on September 9, 2015, the Judge allegedly had not dealt with eight out of nine formal violations of his clients’ rights, Bloem claimed.
 
Also, the Judge already had set up a “fundamental judicial train of thought” where it concerned contested pictures of evidence taken by Prosecutor Gonda van der Wulp during a search at the Buncampers’ residence and already had made up his mind where it concerned the hearing of witnesses, Bloem said.
 
The most severe violation in the defence’s eyes pertained to the Judge’s consultations with the Prosecutor over the phone after the September hearing, without the knowledge of the defendants or their lawyer, Bloem stated.
 
In its response, the Chamber of Recusal established that Lemaire had paid attention to all elements in the lawyer’s preliminary pleadings and had not limited himself to statements made by Prosecutor Dounia Benammar concerning possible inadmissibility due to mistakes made during the house search.
 
The Court did not consider the Judge’s decisions in this matter impermissible, as he had stated only that the preliminary pleadings were “untimely.” It could not be established that the Judge had already made a decision or had made up his mind concerning the preliminary pleadings and the requests to hear witnesses.
 
The Court also did not find any evidence of the alleged phone call between the Judge and the Prosecutor. According to Judge Lemaire there had only been e-mail contacts with the Prosecutor’s Office concerning the progress of the case and the planning of hearings. The Prosecutor also denied there had been any contact by telephone.
 
None of these grounds led the Chamber to the conclusion that there was an “objective fear that the Judge would be biased during the continuation of the case.” Therefore, the request for Lemaire’s disqualification was turned down, the three-judge panel stated.
 
The hearings concerning charges of involvement in fraud, forgery of documents and participation in a criminal organisation, relating to a transaction with a piece of land that had been given on long-lease, are on the agenda for trial on March 16-17.
 
As the challenging request has been turned down, Judge Lemaire will preside over the joint hearing of all five suspects at the same time.
 
The Daily Herald

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