WILLEMSTAD:--- In a press release of the Public Prosecutor (OM) Curaçao dated January 22, 2015 it has been reported that the date March 20, 2015 has been set aside to begin the proceedings in the court case "Babel." It is indicated that this will be a pre-trial (regie-zitting).The case will not be addressed substantively. Meanwhile G.F.S. and C.R.v.d.D. are summoned for the session of March 20, 2015.
On G.F.S. is accused officially of forgery (false invoices and false declaration loss diplomatic passport), (passive) bribery, money laundering and breach of the telecom legislation (the holding of so-called "jammers").
C.R.v.d.D. has been accused of forgery (falsification of invoices), money laundering
and breach of telecoms legislation.
The accusations took place on Curaçao, the United States of America (USA), Switzerland and/or Italy and committed in the period between January 2010 and December 2013.
A pre-trial hearing is usually to make a schedule for when the courtcase is dealt with substantively. The Court will indicate how much time the Judge needs to discuss the case file documents with the accused, the Prosecution will indicate how long they will need for the indictment and the defense will indicate how much time the plea session will take.
The pre-trial is also important for the defense to make any (further) research wishes. For example the defense witnesses might indicate for example that they wish to hear more witnesses in the case. The Court will ultimately decide which research
activities will still have take place and will ultimately determine when and where
the trial of the case will take place and how the program will look like then.
