WILLEMSTAD - The former director of the Curaçao security service (VDC) Edsel Gumbs, as a witness in the Maximus case, answered questions about an informant who allegedly told him about the plans that former minister George Jamaloodin had to have Wiels murdered.
Jamaloodin was sentenced to 28 years in prison in the first instance. According to the Public Prosecution (OM), Jamaloodin ordered the murder of politician Helmin Wiels in 2013.
Gumbs was placed on mandatory leave of absence in 2010, just after Gerrit Schotte had put together his government. At the time, Gumbs was screening the cabinet members.
Gumbs was denied access to the secret service buildings by Schotte and his Minister of Justice. Schotte, who was prime minister at the time, wrote to Gumbs that confidence in him had been seriously compromised and later that year Gumbs was dismissed.
This resulted in a legal battle between the government and Gumbs that lasted two years. It eventually ended with an honorable discharge for Gumbs in 2013. That dismissal was annulled by the judge in 2015, but Gumbs has stopped working at the VDC.
According to the informant, whose identity only Gumbs knows and does not want to reveal under any circumstances, he would have heard that Jamaloodin offered the job to someone to "make a person cold". That is said to have happened when he was approached by a man in a car with black windows who offered stolen goods like watches.
He wanted to sell this to Jamaloodin. According to the informant, Jamaloodin would have said that he was not interested in it, but that he did have a job for that person. Wiels' name was mentioned. The man would have thanked for the job and went his way.
Later that day, that same car returned with Burney “Nini” Fonseca and Luigi Florentina. Jamaloodin would have glanced at the informant as a sign that he had to go because he had something to discuss that the informant should not hear.
Because Gumbs was not employed when the informant contacted him, he advised the informant to approach the RST, the Public Prosecution Service or the police. But the informant did not want to speak to anyone else about only with Gumbs.
What caused confusion and ambiguity during the questioning last Wednesday is that Gumbs stated that he had been called on his mobile work phone by the informant. But Gumbs had turned in all his work materials in 2012 because he had been placed on mandatory leave. Wiels' murder took place in 2013.
Gumbs only came forward with his statement about the informant in 2015. So the question is how is it possible that the informant called on the work phone while Gumbs no longer had it. However, Gumbs did not change his statement.