- Ben Komproe
Benard Komproe (
22 October 1942 -11 October 2004 ) was Minister of Justice for theNetherlands Antilles . He also served as Prime Minister of the Netherlands Antilles for a few months in 2003.Komproe was a member of the local party
Frente Obrero Liberashon 30 di Mei (FOL), and was fifth on the ballot for the5 May 2003 national elections. When party leaderAnthony Godett was blocked from being appointed "formateur" (person responsible for forming the cabinet, seeElections in the Netherlands Antilles ) because of a police investigation, Komproe was appointed instead. For the same reason, Komproe was named Prime Minister of the Netherlands Antilles from22 July until11 August 2003 . After that, he was replaced byMirna Godett , and became Minister of Justice.As Minister of Justice, Komproe attempted to order the local authorities to cease investigating his brother
Hedwig Komproe . Additionally, he tried to have Attorney General Dick Piar fired. When word finally got out that he had abused his position to help keep fellow party memberNelson Monte out of prison, the Netherlands Antillean parliament forced Komproe to step down, leading to the fall of the Godett Cabinet.After his resignation, a judicial investigation was started on Komproe's tenure as a minister. The investigation included what went on at an open-air brothel
Campo Alegre . Komproe was alleged to have given out signed letters, basically to allow dozens ofprostitute s fromColombia and theDominican Republic to reside onCuraçao . He was said to have plans to process each prostitute's permit of residence personally, and to have ordered a special stamp just for this purpose. In July of 2004, a judge determined that Komproe was not authorized to issue letters of that nature. Additionally, Komproe did favors forGiovanni van Ierland , the incarcerated owner of the brothel.In September 2004, Komproe was to be on the Curaçao Island Council for the FOL. However, he was arrested on
6 September 2004 , and charged with corruption,fraud , and membership of a criminal organisation. On24 September his imprisonment was delayed, because he had had a severe stomach operation a few days before. He never regained consciousness after his operation and died at age 61.External links
* [http://www.frenteobrero.com/ Frente Obrero Liberashon (FOL)]
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