Marigot (AFP)
The President of the Community of St. Martin, Daniel Gibbs, prosecuted for "violation of the rules of public control", invokes a period of "imperative urgency" after the passage of Hurricane Irma in September 2017.
Daniel Gibbs and two of his vice-presidents, Valérie Damaseau and Annick Petrus, are summoned to the Criminal Court on December 19th.
They had been placed in custody in mid-October, especially for suspicion of favoritism offenses in public contracts passed after the passage of the hurricane that devastated the Caribbean territory.
"Pass a market to distribute food donations after Irma would have taken six months", "which is unthinkable in times of crisis," said in a statement on Thursday Mr. Gibbs, denouncing a "desire to humiliate."
"Did he have to wait six months to distribute the donations, wait six months to clear the roads and wait six months to supply gasoline for help?" He asks. The "imperious period of urgency" of a month, in the end, was in his opinion far too short.
The fire of Notre-Dame de Paris "was judged so catastrophic that six months of imperious urgency were set by the prefecture.For Saint-Martin, after Irma, the biggest natural disaster in our country: a month!" he writes.
"Those who condemn us too quickly, today, were obviously not in St. Martin on September 6, 2017. They did not experience the immense desolation left by Irma, nor the cases of absolute urgency and pressure. on all sides to settle human situations ", concludes the president of the community.
St. Martin is just recovering from Hurricane Irma Category 5, which killed 11 people in September 2017, and damaged 95% of the island's buildings and neighboring Saint Barth.
Daniel Gibbs was elected to the community of St. Martin in March 2017, just months before the hurricane.
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