Marigot:--- Lips are sealed but emotions are running high among the members of the Union Pour le Progres as the third vice president of the Collectivity Pierre Allioti was arrested and placed in garde de vue on Monday. Allioti was transferred to Guadeloupe on Tuesday at 2pm where he will be placed on 'mise en examen" by the judge of instruction. Efforts made by SMN News to confirm the arrest of Allioti on Tuesday proved futile. Head of the Gendarmes Stephen Brunet said they are not allowed to comment on the case. All comments he said will be made by the judge of instruction and prosecutor that is stationed in Basse Terre, Guadeloupe. Brunet did not deny neither did he confirm the arrest of the third vice president.
The arrest of the third vice president who is in charge of Pole Development Durable (Urbanism) came after months of investigation into the illegal construction and subsequent work stop of a home in Terre Basse. Pierre Allioti and Serge Wienum were questioned on Monday by the investigators but Wienium was released late Monday afternoon while Aliotti was placed in garde de vue.
The Terre Basse investigation started early January 2011 after the attorneys representing the owner of the property filed a complaint and requested an investigation into the building permits department (Urbanism) with Prosecutor Jacques Louvier. Several gendarmes and officials from Urbanism issued a work-stop on December 19th 2010 after several persons in the Terre Basse area began filing complaints about the huge wall and ramp that was built on the beach. It must be noted that there are several other villas in the area that has walls directly on the beach, which is in contravention of the law.
This prompted the owner of the building to seek legal council since he spent over 8 million Euros in trying to build his dream home in the Caribbean for his handicapped daughter.
On March 4th, several gendarmes were seen at the department of Urbanism conducting a search of the various offices there. Sources say lots of documents and computers were seized during that search. While the investigation is ongoing and several top civil servants are being questioned the Prosecutors that are leading the investigation remain tightlipped.
Ever since then employees of the department are being questioned on the procedures that are being used to issue building permits. The investigators are also trying to determine how was it possible for the department to issue a building permit to the architect Maurizio Lanari while the file he submitted to the department was incomplete.
The source said the owner already spent over 8 million Euros and the building is far from being complete and it appeared that several people were allegedly bribed to deliver the building permit. Already the gendarmes have detained the architect Maurizio Lanari who remains in Guadeloupe.
SMN News also learnt that Allioti allegedly filed at least two complaints against some of the employees working at Urbanism when he realized that his department was under investigation.
