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PHILIPSBURG--United People's (UP) party Member of Parliament (MP) and local businessman Silvio Matser has filed an appeal against his tax-fraud conviction in the Court of First Instance. The hearing of the appeal by the Joint Court of Justice kicked off Wednesday with a so-called preliminary hearing.
During the pro-forma hearing Matser's lawyer, attorney-at-law Cor Merx, requested the hearing of seven witnesses.
The Court of First Instance sentenced the first-term MP on January 7 to 24 months, 18 of which were suspended, with three years' probation and 240 hours of community service. His now defunct company, Energizer NV, was ordered to pay NAf. 4.5 million in back taxes.
The Prosecutor's Office had requested a sentence of 24 months in jail, eight of which were to be suspended, with two years' probation and payment of a NAf. 4.5 million fine.
Only Matser appealed the sentence. In the Court of First Instance his lawyers Merx and tax attorney Gert Bergman had pleaded extensively in their client's defence. They not only contested the amounts in back taxes, but also pointed out a number of errors in the preliminary investigations and claimed a company administrator had made the errors in the tax files, not their client.
The Joint Court granted the defence's request to hear witnesses by the Judge of Instruction. Among those to testify are two tax inspectors. One inspector will have to explain to the court whether Matser/Energizer had been exempted from payment of company turnover tax. The other will be heard concerning alleged promises that the case against Matser would be dealt with only fiscally and would not be prosecuted in court.
Several Energizer employees also will be called to the stand. The actual appeal case will be heard after the mid-year recess.
