Joint Court of Justice overturns decision on release of I.A.P.
Yesterday the Joint Court of Justice of Aruba, Curaçao, Sint Maarten, Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba overturned the decision of the Court of First Instance of December 7th 2011 in which the judge suspended the pre-trial detention of Border Bar owner I.A.P. Subsequently the Public Prosecutor ordered for the re-arrest of P. which was immediately executed by the Police, resulting in P. being behind bars around 8 PM last night.
Unlike the Court of First Instance, the Joint Court of Justice came to the conclusion that P.’s health condition and age do not leave him unfit to spend his detention in jail. The Public Prosecutor had appealed the December 7th 2011 decision to suspend the pre-trial detention.
The case has now been rescheduled for Friday December 23rd 2011 in order to enable the judge to take a decision on the continuation of the pre-trial detention, with regards to the decision of the Joint Court of Justice.
P. is a suspect in a large human-smuggling case in which the living and working conditions of several female adult entertainers in the Border Bar caused the police to investigate what is being considered a modern slavery situation ("vrouwenhandel").
Earlier the judge decided that the actual court hearing in this case is scheduled for February 29th 2012.