People surprised by the judge commissioner’s decision not to order Joran’s detention
DIARIO Aruba
02/05/2008

ORANJESTAD (AAN): It was a big ‘black eye’ that Aruba found this weekend after Joran in an ugly way revealed how he got rid of Natalee Holloway and after the judge commissioner decided that he will not [typo] deny the request to detain Joran once again! DIARIO begs the Public Ministry to appeal this decision! The moment has come for all ‘friends’ of Paulus to stop depending on this family!

A press release issued Monday morning by the Public Ministry, show that, related to the recordings that were made in secret for Peter R. de Vries and made available to the Public Ministry, the judge commissioner re-opened the preliminary judicial investigation against J.v.d.S. last Tuesday, January 29.

Peter R. De Vries showed a part of the recordings to the members of the Public Ministry on January 20, 2008. These recordings showed the moment when J. for the first time – as far as the Public Ministry is aware – told his story to another person.

The images showed at the same time the story of J. himself as to what happened on May 30, 2005 in relation to Natalee Holloway. The content of these images and certainly also the manner in which J. finally told his story (including his non-verbal communication) created the impression upon the Public Ministry that this version of events could be very close to the truth.

As to the question of de Vries if the Public Ministry could and would want to use its material, the Public Ministry said ‘yes’, conforming to its point of view from the end of last year that all new information will be investigated. The Public Ministry is taking the video and audio material very seriously. In such a situation, it was not an option to not take action and sit and wait for the broadcast of February 3, 2008. The Public Ministry, with their hands on the material, elected to actively and directly direct the investigation to this.

The Public Ministry was able to know later that there were more images available from this secret operation and that these would also be put at their disposal. Before taking drastic decisions in this case, the Public Ministry wanted to look at all images that de Vries says to dispose of. This happened on the 25 and 26 of January. These images were also put at the disposal of the Public Ministry. On Thursday, February 1, 2008, the Public Ministry got the last images produced from the de Vries operation.

Neither the Public Ministry nor the Police had any involvement in the recording operation, nor did they exert any sort of influence on them. Because of this, the Public Ministry is of the opinion that the materials obtained can be used in the investigation.

The Public Ministry observed that the suspect J.v.d.S. confirmed that the reconstruction of events that he himself gave, in large part corroborated by the facts and circumstances obtained in the investigation. Notwithstanding the fact that the Public Ministry places great value on the declarations made here by v.d.S., the Public Ministry is acting also with prudence and due care. It is important to be careful with confessions.

The fact that in the eyes of many, the disappearance of Natalee Holloway seems to have been solved with this confession on a crime program, it does not mean that the video and audio material that brings them to this conclusion is sufficient for a conviction by a criminal judge.

It is up to the Court to judge the value of this confession in the context of other results of the investigation. It is not up to the Public Ministry to give an answer to the question of a suspect’s guilt: this is up to the Court to make. There is a big difference between the reality of the Court and the reality of television.

This difference was demonstrated by the fact that the Public Ministry, on the basis of the investigative material at its disposal, asked the judge commissioner on February 1, 2008 to give an order of preventive detention against J.v.d.S. and the same night the judge commissioner denied this request.

The reason is that now the judge commissioner, after the previous detentions of the suspect, has set heavy demands in order to grant his detention. According to the judge commissioner, simply the contents of the statements by the suspect J.v.d.S. do not meet these demands.

This means that the Public Ministry cannot detain v.d.S. in Holland. The Public Ministry will appeal this decision. It remains now up to the Public Ministry and Police to investigate the version of facts given by the suspect J.v.d.S.

This investigation will not limit itself to Aruba. It will also have to investigate all the material from the de Vries investigation, as was brought forward in his show. It will also ask forensic experts, on the basis of facts, to give their opinion in relation to the physical condition of Natalee Holloway that night and in relation to what, according to J.v.d.S., happened on the beach. The investigation will take more time.

If the investigation gives such reason, the Public Ministry will release information to the public. In the meantime, it will not give more information

[translated by Getagrip]