PHILIPSBURG/THE HAGUE:--- The Hague Court of Appeal has ordered the Government of St. Maarten and the Dutch State to return a St. Maarten prisoner from the Netherlands to St. Maarten within six months, ruling that his continued detention overseas has become disproportionate and violates his right to family life.
The June 9, 2026, judgment overturns an earlier decision of the District Court of The Hague, which had refused the prisoner’s request to be transferred back to Pointe Blanche Prison. The Appeal Court found that while the original transfer to the Netherlands after Hurricane Irma was lawful and justified, the arrangement was temporary and has now lasted more than eight and a half years.
The prisoner, a citizen of St. Maarten, was convicted in 2016 by the Joint Court of Justice and sentenced to 18 years in prison. The sentence was later reduced by the Dutch Supreme Court to 17½ years because of delays in the proceedings. He was also separately sentenced by the Court of First Instance of St. Maarten to four years in prison. He had been detained at Pointe Blanche since August 2014 before being transferred to the Netherlands on November 4, 2017.
According to the ruling, the transfer was requested by St. Maarten’s Minister of Justice in September 2017 because Hurricane Irma had severely damaged Pointe Blanche Prison, creating serious security and capacity problems. The Dutch Minister approved the temporary transfer for a maximum of six months, but the placement was repeatedly extended every six months under the Kingdom’s mutual detention capacity arrangement.
The prisoner argued that his detention in the Netherlands made meaningful contact with his family practically impossible. His parents live in St. Maarten, are elderly, and do not have the financial means or practical ability to travel to Europe. His father is 90 years old, in fragile health, and has hearing problems, making telephone or video contact difficult without assistance.
The court agreed that long-distance detention interferes with the prisoner’s right to respect for family life under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights. The judges accepted that the original transfer had a legal basis and served legitimate goals, including public safety, prevention of disorder and crime, and protection of the rights of others. However, the court ruled that the balance had shifted because the temporary measure had continued for more than eight and a half years.
The court stressed that the longer the overseas detention continued, the more severe and structural the restriction on family life became. It also noted that the Government relied on security concerns largely based on the prisoner’s conduct at Pointe Blanche before his 2017 transfer, while no recent detention-behavior report or updated risk assessment was presented.
At the same time, the court did not ignore the crisis at Pointe Blanche. The judgment notes that St. Maarten’s prison capacity has been at full capacity for a long time and that suspects in serious criminal cases are reportedly released almost weekly because they cannot be detained. The current prison population consists of suspects accused of very serious crimes and convicted prisoners serving long sentences.
Because of those concerns, the court refused to order an immediate transfer within seven days, as requested. Instead, it gave St. Maarten and the Dutch State six months to arrange the return, assess security risks, and examine all possible placement options. The court also suggested that authorities consider a possible “triangle exchange,” in which another detainee with stronger geographic ties to Curaçao is moved there while space is created in St. Maarten.
The court rejected the argument that transfer to Curaçao would be sufficient, finding that the distance and cost would still prevent the prisoner’s elderly parents from visiting him.
The ruling orders both St. Maarten and the Dutch State to return the prisoner to St. Maarten within six months and to pay his legal costs in both court proceedings. The judgment is immediately enforceable.
