WILLEMSTAD - The Court of First Instance of Curaçao has today imposed an unconditional 40-hour community service on the suspect Norman Serphos If this sentence is not properly executed, Serphos must serve a prison sentence of 20 days.
At the hearing on April 1, the Public Prosecutor had demanded a suspended sentence of 60 hours, to be replaced by 30 days in custody with a probationary period of two years.
The court considers that it has been legally and convincingly proven that Serphos filed a false complaint on 20 December 2018 by knowingly and contrary to truth told the police that his Facebook account was hacked. The argument that Serphos acted in a state of emergency is not valid.
Filing a false complaint is punishable because there is a danger that the police and the judiciary will be misled. Serphos was guilty of this, especially when he worked at the Public Prosecution Service. The judge charges the suspect heavily.
"In view of the above, there can, therefore, be no question of a pardon and there is reason to impose on the suspect a community service of considerable duration," the judge said.
In all circumstances, the court has concluded that the seriousness of the proven evidence is insufficiently reflected in the sentence demanded by the public prosecutor and has sentenced the suspect to community service for the duration of 40 hours in the alternative 20 days in custody.