HOW MANY OTHER ERRORS WENT UNNOTICED AT THE BONAIRE PROSECUTION OFFICE (OM)?
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By: JJosephaNews
Twitter: @JJosephaNews
Willemstad, Curacao. Kralendijk, Bonaire. Two weeks ago, during a court penal case, it was noticed that there were many errors that the Public Prosecution Office (OM) committed.
JUDGE REMARKS
In one day, there were many things that seemed wrong in the legal cases and the judge on duty made remarks on such administrative errors.
JUSTICE CAN BE INFLUENCE-"ABLE" INTENTIONALLY OR ACCIDENTALLY
The OM is the arm of justice which trials and prosecutes cases before a judge against entities whom are charged with breaking the laws of the land of The Dutch Caribbean. However; if the OM; itself; commits any errors, or if they have made any mistake in the preparation or the prosecution of a case, this could eventually be detrimental in the conviction or the return of "guilty" or "not guilty" of the criminal charges.
The final outcome of prosecution's errors, could have an innocent entity or person imprisoned or found guilty, as well as it could result in a person or entity that committed a crime as charged, actually "walking-off scotch-free" aka; found not guilty hence gaining freedom unjustly.
ONE TIME SHOT AT THE FIRST SHOT
Due to double jeopardy; the OM Office has the responsibility of "1 try 1 attempt" to get it all right the first time. Therefore; the OM office does not have the luxury of committing errors that releases criminals on the streets in community, that should be in jail, nor enjailing the "not guilty" unjustly; because of over zealousness, discrimination, abuse of power or injustice in the judicial branch.
THE OM'S RESPONSIBILITY
The autonomous countries within the Kingdom of The Netherlands; with regard to Bonaire, St. Eustatius and Saba (BES), each have their own Public Prosecutor's Office.
The three independent Public Prosecution Offices (OM); each has a Public Prosecutor in The Court of First Instance; (COFI) under the leadership of a Chief Prosecutor.
At the head of the Public Prosecutors is a joint Attorney General, with offices in each country. The Office of the Attorney General; located in Curacao; resorts under Article 3 paragraph 1 of The Kingdom Act for Public Prosecution. In Curacao, The Attorney General is accountable to the Minister of Justice of Curacao, St. Maarten and the Netherlands.
Some of the errors noted about the particular case 2 weeks ago, were on the "Specification Numbers (SNs)" per legal case.
The SNs is connected to a specific case when registered, and this ensures that the case is identified correctly. The OM is responsible for this identification detail.
Two weeks ago on Wednesday, there were SNs that didn't cross-match with registered cases.
The Public Ministry is also responsible to pile up punishment/sentencing files. Everything that has to do with a legal case, needs to be present at that moment to try the case.
DEFENSE ATTORNEY RECOGNIZED INCOMPLETENESS AND INCONSISTENCY IN CASE (ERRORS)
The suspect's lawyer said to have a file that wasn't complete, where some materials were missing.
The missing materials were:
i) * Video
ii) * Witnesses declaration
iii) * Some undone copies
Additionally, there was also another case where, the original file wasn't found, and therefore the officially signed declaration by an accuser wasn't there "until needed".
PROBLEMS WITH COURT SUMMONS...
Other mistakes included:
Some suspects received their summons to appear in court at the last moment.
There were also cases where the OM "forgot" to inform the injured party to appear in court.
WHY IS THERE SO MUCH DANGER ON THE STREETS?
As a procedure, when a provisional or preventative arrest/detention of a suspect is made, on some occasions; the prosecutor may request the commissary judge to prolong the arrest.
In the previous week, a person accused in a dangerous case was set free on the streets because, the Public Ministry failed to request for the prolongation during the period in which it is mandated.
CLARIFICATION
According to sources, the Attorney General Martine Boheur, couldn't give any clarification on the issues.
The same sources explained that; "To do so, Attorney General Boheur would have to first find out what happened and then give a clarification".
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