ORANJESTAD — Alex Mathew, who is suspected of human trafficking, was released. Yesterday the Court in First Instance approved the request of his lawyers John Zara and Bram Moszkowicz to suspend his remand in anticipation of the trial. The owner of nightclub Foxy Lady is not really happy though. “They’ve taken everything from me while I was in custody for eighteen months.”By our reporter

Ariën Rasmijn  

The reason for his release is because the trial of ‘Estreya’, in which Mathew, his wife Liliana and Michael Levestone are suspected of human trafficking, has been postponed once again. The trial is now planned for May 22^nd, 23^rd and 24^th. The trail was to have started last Wednesday, but Mathew’s lawyer Zara was yet to hear all witnesses. “I’ve only been able to speak with 10 of the 30 witnesses. The Public Prosecutor was able to hear these 30 people in four months, but we were unable to contact most of them. Either they had moved to America, to another state so their contact data was not available immediately, or they had suddenly left the island. I personally think – also because the statements that we do have, are favorable to my client – many of those statements with the Public Prosecutor were false and that Justice is now doing their utmost to keep these people out of our reach.”

Several conditions were connected to his release. For instance, he is to report to the police twice a week, his passport has been taken, he may not have any contact with witnesses in the case and he must remain reachable for Justice. Field officer of Justice Peter Blanken states that the Public Prosecutor (OM) reconciles oneself to the judge’s decision. “We had already taking this into consideration because of the long duration of the case.”

Angry

Before the Amigoe, Mathew says he is very angry that the press was not present during the trial. “They had been there in numbers when I was transferred to Bonaire, because one feared I would escape. Now I’ve been released quietly through the backdoor.” He says he’s been trying to find a place to stay until the trial in May. “I have no house, no money, nothing. They’ve taken everything from me while I was in custody for eighteen months.” The reason given earlier to recommit Mathew to custody, namely to prevent him from contacting witnesses (collusion danger), was no longer an issue. Mathew always found that a weak argument.

“At a certain moment, for inexplicable reasons, that was no longer an argument to detain Levestone. That so-called collusion danger still existed when he was released. In KIA, I had a mobile telephone that had the numbers of all the girls who had worked at Foxy Lady. I know that the OM had tapped that mobile telephone for one year. Therefore, the OM can even tell you that I’ve not contacted anyone. For that matter, my wife and Levestone had all of these numbers too and they hadn’t used them either.”

With witnesses yet to be heard, the court had already decided three weeks ago that the case wouldn’t come up for trail as regards contents, said lawyer Zara. During the session last Wednesday, he and Mathew’s leading attorney Bram Moszkowicz subsequently requested to suspend the remand of their client. “We asked the judge to consider this if necessary for a few days, and announce his decision on Friday. We received the judge’s decision on Friday that our client could be released from KIA.”

Alex Mathew is accused of human trafficking, exploitation, threatening, assault, rape, abuse and various other serious offences that occurred in his nightclub at San Nicolas. Justice had conducted searches in the club, his residence and other buildings on August 5^th 2010. The strippers, who had worked at Foxy Lady, were supposedly forced to make long hours and according to Justice, were kept against their will. The case came to light when the OM received a report from the Dutch police. The Coordination Center Human Trafficking had received reports from the Ukraine about human trafficking on Aruba.