WILLEMSTAD--MFK-leader Gerrit Schotte and his wife Cicely van der Dijs decided to file a complaint against Curaçao Member of Parliament (MP) for MAN Yaël Plet, for filing a false complaint against them.
The former Prime Minister said this in a televised interview. After Plet filed a complaint about an attempt to bribe him Schotte and PAS-leader Charles Cooper, who joined MFK for the early April 28 election, became suspects in the case dubbed “Wilhelmina.”
Schotte said Cooper and his wife would also file a complaint and that everything Plet had said in his statement to authorities was a lie. “Who sows wind will reap a storm,” said the MFK leader.
He publicly warned Plet of serious consequences that await him following his false accusations. Schotte maintains that he had absolutely nothing to do with bribing the MP. “Plet is lying! He lied about the day, the place and the time ... everything Plet has said is a lie.”
Plet claimed he was offered more than NAf. 300,000 to join the MFK-led group in Parliament. He filed a complaint in mid-February.
On February 18 the National Detectives started their investigation which led to raids last week. These were conducted at the homes of Schotte, Cooper and businessman Gilbert Ricardo who Plet used to work for.
The Public Prosecutor’s Office said the house searches took place based on indications of both an attempted and an actual bribery. From whom and by whom they did not say.
Plet, who had been abroad but was advised to return to the island by his lawyer, held a press conference to say he stood by the complaint. He argued that the signed letter saying Ricardo had not tried to bribe him does not contradict his statement to authorities, but failed to go into details pending the probe.
The current opposition member said he thought his former boss would use the letter for bank matters and didn’t know Ricardo was going to publish it. Plet added that the airline ticket for his vacation was booked a long time ago and he had certainly not “fled” as some suggested.
