High Court to rule Tuesday on Derrick Holiday appeal

May 31, 2010 2:32 PM

PHILIPSBURG--The High Court in The Hague will present its decision in the appeal of former police chief commissioner Derrick Holiday against his conviction of forgery and fraud on Tuesday, June 1.

On that same date, the Central Government wants to appoint Peter de Witte as the new Police Chief Commissioner of the Windward Islands. In a separate legal action Holiday is trying to block the appointment of his successor while he is still officially holding the position. The Ministry of Justice has apparently placed the procedure for Holiday's dismissal on hold.

In November 2009, Holiday had already asked the Court to halt the procedure to select his successor until the High Court would have given its verdict on his case.

On Monday, the Court of First Instance will rule on a resolution on behalf of the Federal Government to appoint new Chief Commissioner of Police of the Windward Islands, Peter de Witte, as per June 1.

In October 2008, Holiday was sentenced by the Court of First Instance to four months suspended and a NAf. 10,000 fine. On appeal, the former police chief was meted out a far more severe sentence of one year suspended, with two years' probation, 180 hours of community service, and a three-year ban from the Police Force.

The High Court has in the meantime heard Holiday's case. A decision had initially been foreseen for earlier this month, but was postponed until Tuesday.

Holiday is being represented in the High Court by high-profile lawyer Gerard Spong, who has great experience in handling Antillean cases in the Netherlands' Supreme Court.

The High Court will only rule on the legal merits of Holiday's case and will not look into the crimes itself. The High Court panel of judges will decide whether the law has been applied correctly, and if Holiday's rights as a suspect were observed.

In the Court of First Instance as well as in the Joint Court of the Netherlands' Antilles and Aruba, his lawyers had claimed Holiday's rights as a suspect had been violated; for instance, after his arrest on February 5, 2008, when he was taken immediately to the House of Detention in Pointe Blanche for questioning.

His lawyer had qualified this as a "disproportionate display of power" that had put his client under "immense and illegal psychological pressure."

The Appeal Court, however, found that Holiday was not put under pressure, stating that it was not against the law to interrogate a suspect within the confines of a prison. The Court also found the search of Holiday's house and office admissible.

Another point of contention was that Holiday claimed that back then Minister of Justice David Dick had promised him that he would not be prosecuted for fraud in obtaining rent allowance if he would pay back the money involved.

The Appeal Court also rejected this claim, stating it was not very likely that the minister would have ever made such a promise.

28 May 2010