St. Maarten News: – The Public Prosecutor’s Office bade farewell to Solicitor-General Taco Stein last Friday. Stein goes into retirement per February 1. Solicitor-General Anton van der Schans will temporarily take over his task in St. Maarten.
Stein’s career began in 1983 at the prosecutor’s office in Middelburg. Six years later he moved to Rotterdam where he handled fraud cases. From 1991 to 1996 he was stationed in St. Maarten, before he returned to Rotterdam to work for the national office of the public prosecutor. He set up the combat against cyber criminality and furthermore dealt with serious criminality. In 2005 he returned to the island.
He became Chief Prosecutor, and later the Solicitor-General, a task he also fulfilled in Aruba.
Attorney-General Guus Schram honored Stein during his farewell reception: “You are the proud founding father of the Public Prosecutor’s Office in St. Maarten as we know it today. You also stood at the basis of the many new developments the office has been going through during the past couple of years. Your experiences, your know-how and your diplomatic skills have inspired the prosecutor’s office to set the new developments in motion. With your departure, the prosecutor’s office is losing a highly valued nestor.”
On behalf of the Board of the Attorneys-General in the Netherlands, former Chief Prosecutor Hans Mos was present at the reception. He thanked Stein for the work he did for the prosecutor’s office in the Netherlands and presented him with a 20 centimeter-high TOM-statue, as a token of appreciation.
The full-size TOM-statue stands in front of the prosecutor’s office in The Hague. TOM (a bastardizing of TOM) is “a symbol for the active and committed attitude of the prosecutor’s office.” At the foot of the statue is a quote from Emile Zola: “The truth is on its way and nothing will stop her.”
The life-size statue and the miniatures are made by artist Elselien van der Graaf.
St. Maarten Solicitor-General Taco Stein retires
