The Prosecutor's Office, for its part, demanded 18 months imprisonment for each and wants the officers discharged from office for five years.

 

This case had been adjourned twice to hear witnesses. "The statements show that the Prosecutor's Office doesn't have any evidence and they don't correspond with the conflicting statements from the victims," according to Vaders.

 

"The statements from P., who was supposedly seriously abused for several minutes at home, in the police car and at Koredor Boulevard, are entirely conflicting regarding contents. This makes the statements absolutely unreliable," Vaders said.

 

Prosecutor Clarelli Hato-Willems mentioned the GPS report received from Zenitel, which shows that the officers – contrary to their previous statements – had driven along Koredor. However, they unjustly concluded that the report is proof of the mistreatment of P., said Vaders.

 

"That they drove along Koredor doesn't mean that he was mistreated. Moreover, that same report, contrary to what P. stated, shows the police car hadn't stopped at all at Koredor."

 

When asked, the officers explained to the judge that for fear of reprisals they hadn't dared to say they had driven via Koredor. Moreover, P. admitted earlier that he was rebellious and had even become aggressive.

 

Also, in the case of victim G., Vaders demands acquittal for the police officers. G. had first stated that he was mistreated while handcuffed.

 

"A year later, he comes up with an entirely different story about mistreatment in the patrol car and at the police station. However, the witness statements don't confirm his story.

"His wife indicated that G. had started the fight and the file shows that his wife and her sister were under pressure by G.," said Vaders. "He indicated earlier that the sister, who was called as a witness, wouldn't appear because she's illegal on the island."

 

"That's exactly the sister whom G. had mistreated that particular evening. What's worse, G.'s wife cried when telling the prosecutor that neither of the siblings would give a statement because G. had filed for divorce, wanted to appropriate the marital home and demanded parental authority over the children. The woman would only give a statement in favour of G. if she was paid for such."

 

This gives Vaders a clear picture of the two sisters being under enormous pressure and they, therefore, cannot be trusted at all as witnesses.

 

The officers stated in court that they love their work because they can help people, but won't accept that in doing so they are subjected to aggression from the same citizens. S. added that he's convinced the prosecution, in these cases, is related to reprisals for his role in various police strikes held around April 2011.

 

At the time, officers had stopped working due to the worsening situation at the Molenplein building housing the Otrobanda police station. They've meanwhile moved to the shopping centre Colon in anticipation of a new building at Rif.