Unbiased look at the Sint Maarten Elections
St. Maarten – Rookie parliamentarian Christopher Emmanuel will be taken to court in summary proceedings for insulting and slandering E.T.M., attorney Cor Merx confirmed to this newspaper yesterday.
Last week Monday, Emmanuel stated in parliament that in 2010, he had been offered $80,000, but he did not say for what. In the 2010 campaign, Emmanuel was the number 14 candidate for the National Alliance. He won 103 votes, not enough for a seat.
This time around, as the number 8 candidate, he squeezed into a seat in parliament with 246 votes, two ahead of Rodolphe Samuel. Emmanuel said last Monday that he had been offered $400,000 to go independent and that the offer later went up to $2 million.
Members of Parliament wondered aloud why the young MP had not gone to the prosecutor’s office to file a complaint about the attempt to bribe him. Last Thursday, detectives from the RST questioned him about his statements.
Emmanuel said on Monday that he would make a statement about the situation to this newspaper, but he never did. Yesterday, Today reached him briefly on his cell phone and asked him for a statement. Emmanuel asked to call back in twenty minutes but when we did, he did not answer his phone anymore.
The plaintiff, E.T.M., got wind that Emmanuel repeated his statements about the bribery attempt outside of the Parliament and that he had mentioned his name in connection with it. After some thought, M. decided to sue Emmanuel over his allegations in summary proceedings, because he feels insulted and slandered by them.
His attorney Cor Merx is currently preparing the case. It is not known yet when the court will handle the case.
