With the police report leak
Now more than ever police has to find the authority to re-detain the suspects
DIARIO Aruba
4/20/2006

ORANJESTAD (AAN) – Information that was extracted from the police report on the case of the disappearance of Natalee, which was leaked to the press in Aruba and the U.S., shows that the moment has come to give police in Aruba more authority and possibility to act appropriately in the investigation.

From the beginning of Natalee’s case, police were complaining that they had their hands tied and the reports about how police worked under circumstances that the suspects/detainees had to be interrogated in a special room equipped with video cameras and sound equipment, curtailed the effectiveness and efficiency of interrogations.

In the community, this special treatment with video cameras and sound equipment was rather seen as a type of preferential treatment for the son of a judge and a type of treatment which was not available for native sons who in the past have been detained and interrogated.

From good sources in the police force, DIARIO obtained information from the beginning of the case that the system of having to put special equipment for interrogation of the suspects made the suspects mock police.

It was said that said that the suspects were telling police every time that ‘if there’s no body, there’s no case!’

It is more than logical that the suspects, knowing that everything was recorded and listened to afterwards, that they could remain quiet and that police could not use interrogation tactics for pressure like they are able to do with other detainees who did not have the luxury of preferential treatment.

In the copy of the police report which was leaked, the three suspects also discussed and accused each other formally, in regards to whether Joran’s father told them that if there is no body, there is no case, and here it is possible to see what police in Aruba were complaining about.

At the beginning of the case, some errors were made and valuable days were lost for the technical aspect of the investigation and also the investigation of the suspects’ interrogation.

But this would not have been the case if police could have worked before it was possible with all suspects, of relatively young age, they would not have been able to withstand the pressure of intensive interrogation and that very probably they would have broken after a few hours or days.

There were and still are police who are convinced that if it weren’t for the video cameras and recording equipment, police would have been able to solve the case better by finding solid evidence and avoiding that today, Aruba continues to get a bad name around the world due to the fact that the case of Natalee is still not solved.

A police official said in anonymity that if police could have put pressure with only some heavy screaming against the suspects, then at least one of them would have broken against the others, either that they are saying the truth or that they are guilty or that in the end, it would have come out that they truly are innocent, but the police report which was leaked gives every indication that the suspects knew and were covering each other.

Referring to many years of experience with cases where great pressure had to be put on suspects for them to talk, police made it be known that they could have solved the case from the beginning when they detained the suspects.

With the luxury and preferential treatment of audio and video recording equipment it is more than logical that the suspects could later say that they were mentally mistreated and that their human rights were violated, etc. etc. bla bla bla, and all police evidence could have been declared null or illegally obtained.

Now, with information of a recording made by authorities, it is known what the Kalpoe brothers were saying or accusing Joran of, and on the other side, what Joran was accusing the Kalpoe brothers of, every person can draw their conclusions that police had their hands tied and that the could not have done much without solid evidence.

With the leak of the very controversial police report in the case of Natalee, everyone is under the impression that the three suspects did not say the complete truth or even that they said a bunch of lies in order to cover up what took place.

Because at the moment where one turned against the other in terms of what could have happened to Natalee, and they are speaking of a body being discovered, hitting a girl with the car, certain people who helped one or the other, the role of the father in the whole case, the manner of thinking, speaking and acting of the suspects, and much more, there’s no other alternative than to draw the conclusion that all three suspects have to be brought in again by Aruban police authorities so that they can interrogate hem again, but this time, without video recordings or any preferential treatment.

The Aruban police are the ones who have to carry the bad name in Aruba, and certainly outside of Aruba not that it can be seen that certain matters related to the three suspects do not smell very good.

For the judicial system in Aruba and the Dutch Kingdom in its entirety, this case is one that has to be attended to with more police authority, and there remains nothing other than interrogating all suspects related to Natalee’s case again and putting an end to this disaster which is harming Aruba and the judicial system of the Dutch Kingdom.

[translated by Getagrip]