PHILIPSBURG–Five suspects ranging in age from seventeen to twenty years will stand trial December 20 on a number of armed-robbery charges, it was decided Wednesday during a procedural hearing in the Court of First Instance.
The trial was postponed for organisational reasons as it will most likely take one full day.
Main suspect B.B. (19) and his co-defendants will be charged with involvement in an armed robbery at a home on Agave Road in Pelican on December 7, 2016.
The victim was tied up during the robbery, beaten until he bled and threatened with a firearm and a machete. Several items were stolen, including bank and credit cards.
The suspects will also be charged with deprivation of the victim’s liberty, with being an accomplice to the theft of money from the victim’s bank account with use of the stolen cards, and with possession of illegal (fire-) arms.
The victim had filed for material damages to the amount of US $21,623.55 and for $3,000 in immaterial damages. The Prosecutor’s Office will also file a $2,334 dispossession claim against all suspects, except for J.S.V. (19).
Defendants D.R.W. (20), A.D.H. (18), A.A.G. (17) and J.S.V. are also suspected of having committed several other armed robberies with violence at, for instance, supermarkets and restaurants.
B. is also held as an accomplice in an attempted street robbery at Boardwalk Boulevard on March 4. He will be charged with theft, violence and extortion for this alleged crime, during which he reportedly used a knuckleduster. He will also be charged with possession of several firearms between December 7, 2016, and January 22, 2017.
The charges against the other three suspects are largely the same. D.R.W. and A.D.H. are both suspected of involvement in the Pelican robbery and deprivation of liberty. They are also suspects in the armed robberies of Yan Yang supermarket in Sucker Garden on January 23 and of Wah Yung supermarket in Cole Bay one day later.
D.R.W. and J.S.V. were both arrested January 27 during an armed robbery at Fai Wang Chinese restaurant in Cole Bay, during which three suspects were caught red-handed after a shootout with the police.
J.S.V. is considered an accomplice in the supermarket and restaurant robberies. The Prosecutor’s Office is holding him as the driver of the getaway car, not as one of the robbers. He will also be charged with illegal firearm possession.
During Wednesday’s proceedings, lawyers for the defence Sjamira Roseburg and Safira Ibrahim filed requests with the Court of First Instance to lift or suspend their clients’ pre-trial detention. The Court did not immediately decide on these requests.
Source: The Daily Herald https://www.thedailyherald.sx/islands/71202-five-armed-robbers-on-trial-december-20
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