Manon Ridderbeks appointed as Chief Prosecutor for St. Maarten | THE DAILY HERALD

New Chief Prosecutor Manon Ridderbeks

PHILIPSBURG–The Kingdom Council of Ministers has approved the appointment of Manon Ridderbeks as the new Chief Prosecutor for St. Maarten, effective August 1, 2025. The Dutch government announced the appointment on Wednesday.

Ridderbeks, 51, originally from Limburg, will succeed Hieke Buist, who will take up the role of waarnemend rechercheofficier (Deputy Investigating Prosecutor) at the National Prosecutor’s Office in the Netherlands as of July 1.

 Currently serving as a senior prosecutor with the Limburg Prosecutor’s Office, Ridderbeks is no stranger to St. Maarten. In 2008, she relocated with her family from Alkmaar, in the province of North Holland, to the island to serve as a prosecutor.

 After four years of service, the family returned to the Netherlands. “Not as Dutch citizens anymore, but as children of the Kingdom,” Ridderbeks wrote on September 11, 2017, in a post on the Dutch Public Prosecutor’s Office intranet, ZoOM. “We were already homesick before we had even properly set foot on Dutch soil.”

 In that digital post, she expressed how deeply connected she remained to St. Maarten—especially in the aftermath of Hurricane Irma, which had struck the island just five days earlier and prompted her emotional message. “Night after night, I sit glued to the television. I, who rarely watch TV, don’t want to miss a thing. It’s as if I need to make sure the rest of the Netherlands truly sees what’s happening on what still feels like my island. As if seeing Irma’s devastation myself might make the rest of the country see it too. And maybe then, something will happen.”

 She was one of three initiators of a relief fund for colleagues at the Prosecutor’s Office in Philipsburg affected by the hurricane, with a particular focus on supporting local staff and their families.

Ridderbeks returns to St. Maarten with a wealth of experience. In 2020, she joined the team of prosecutors handling the MH17 trial—related to the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 on July 17, 2014, over eastern Ukraine, a conflict zone at the time. All 298 people on board were killed, including 43-year-old Kevin Jesurun from Curaçao.

 She was selected in 2020 to replace one of the three prosecutors originally assigned to the case. At the time of her appointment, the Public Prosecutor’s Office noted that Ridderbeks had been closely involved in the MH17 investigation since the incident in 2014, stating: “She brings a great deal of historical knowledge and expertise to the trial team.”

 On November 17, 2022, The Hague District Court convicted suspects Kharchenko, Dubinskiy, and Girkin, sentencing them to life imprisonment for causing the crash and the murder of all 298 occupants. Suspect Pulatov was acquitted.

 With her return to her former office building in Philipsburg—this time as Chief Prosecutor—Ridderbeks is expected to bring seasoned leadership to the Prosecutor’s Office and contribute to the continued strengthening of law enforcement and the justice system on the island.