He thus requested the release against Daniel Gibbs in three files and against Valérie Damaseau in one file.
After three half-days of investigation, the hearing continued Tuesday afternoon with the requisitions of the public prosecutor, Xavier Sicot. He came specially from Basse-Terre for the trial. However, he is not the magistrate of the prosecution who had received in 2019 the reports from the prefect and the anonymous denunciation, which had triggered the seizure of the Saint-Martin research section to carry out investigations into the facts of the offense of favoritism. that the prefect suspected with regard to Daniel Gibbs, Valérie Damaseau and Annick Petrus.
Xavier Sicot clarified that he did not experience the passage of Hurricane Irma and that he is therefore not in a position to appreciate "the particular context" of the time, nevertheless he confided to having gets an idea of the complexity of the situation by talking to several people.
These items recalled, the prosecutor believes he has "the advantage of having a fresh look" at the file he recovered from his predecessor. “I'll tell you what I think of this case… Perhaps the prosecution deserved to be conducted differently,” he told the court in the preamble to his submissions. Before reminding some to be “vigilant” when speaking and not to accuse elected officials “of being all rotten to put in the same bag”. The tone was set.
The prosecutor then returned to each of the cases. Overall, he recognized the urgency that motivated elected officials to take certain decisions, specifically those of selecting an insured expert a few days after Irma to help the community obtain the maximum amount of insurance compensation, wanting to renovate the house of a centenarian whose house had been destroyed by the hurricane, wanting to continue national solidarity by renovating 400 private roofs.
He thus requested the release against Daniel Gibbs in three files and against Valérie Damaseau in one file.
On the other hand, he admits the guilt of the president of the COM in another file, that where the president validated transactional protocols to regularize contracts concluded with three local companies in an irregular way in a period unrelated to the post Irma emergency. He then requested recognition of guilt but a waiver of sentence.
“Why are these cases coming to court? “asked the representative of the public ministry. If he considers from a legal point of view that the president of the COM is at fault because he signed the documents and that, from his political experience, he is supposed to know at least the rules of public procurement and ordering, the prosecutor, however, raises "the injustice of only stigmatizing Daniel Gibbs" for having used companies for the provision of services in particular, without going through public contracts as should have been done.
This so-called supplier file has brought to light that the practices alleged against Daniel Gibbs had been in force for several years and that the companies had been selected by the former term of office. “Could Mr. Gibbs change the game when he came to power in April 2007? Should he pay for everyone? “, also asked the prosecutor. He's not sure. And to point out that never before the reports of the former prefect, the prefecture and its control of legality had denounced the deliberations of the COM. "The State is also at fault on certain things", admits Xavier Sicot.
He added that according to him, the State which had wanted to restore order after Irma, had not properly supported the Collectivity, "that it had not had any real proposals". And that his new representative today, having discussed it with him, would adopt other methods to act urgently if a new cyclone occurred.
Finally Xavier Sicot denounced the people who wanted to "instrumentalize justice" by making anonymous denunciations or by "showing files while specifying that the prosecution could not use them".
The court reserved its decision on February 24. (soualigapost.com)
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