'Request to hear witnesses in Domino-case’

May 19, 2012 6:01 PM

ORANJESTAD - Luis Mansur, who was paroled last Tuesday, will submit a request for a provisional hearing of witnesses. He wants to hear key figures in his case under oath. He’s aiming for (former) ministers, parliamentarians and the Public Prosecutor.

Mansur was sentenced to seven years imprisonment in 2008 on account of his leading position in the Domino-case (drug smuggling).He served two-thirds of his sentence and was paroled this week. Mansur was to hold a press conference on Monday but announced through lawyer’s office James Martin & Associates that he would first submit the request for a so-called hearing of witnesses. In a first reaction, interim attorney general Peter Blanken stated before the Amigoe that the Public Prosecutor received a compliant letter from Mansur but that the abuses mentioned in the letter were incorrect as regards facts.

The press report from the lawyer’s office states that ‘Mansur will request to hear key figures under oath in his case – including (former) ministers, parliamentarians and members from the Public Prosecutor. With this, Mansur wants ‘the truth to come to light’ on his dossier in the so-called Domino-case. This case regarded an extensive criminal network that smuggled and traded huge consignments of drugs to Aruba and other countries in the region. Mansur believes judicial rules were violated during the investigation conducted between 2005 and 2007 in this case and that this is a recurrent phenomenon on the island.

Interim attorney general Peter Blanken stated this morning that he wasn’t informed of the press report. He mentioned that he received a complaint letter from Mansur two weeks ago though, which letter stated that the then officer of Justice Frans van Deutekom had started the investigation against him for dubious reasons. Van Deutekom was supposedly a family friend of the then premier Nelson Oduber (MEP) from whom he received the order to start the investigation after Mansur had refused to deposit money into MEP’s party-coffer.

Blanken: “Two days later I told him that the imputation was incorrect as regards facts. Van Deutekom had namely taken over the dossier in 2007 from Officer Amalin Flanegin who had gone into retirement. After that Van Deutekom had had the dossier at his disposal five to six months. A different Dutch officer of Justice had started the investigation in 2005, based on a previous investigation”, said Blanken. “I find it bizarre that he raises such accusation now. If it’s true then it certainly would have been relevant at the time of the trial”, said the interim attorney general. 

(Amigoe)