PARAMARIBO, Suriname, CMC – The Court of Justice (ECJ) has reserved until November 21 this year, its ruling in the case in which former finance minister, Gillmore Hoefdraad, who is challenging his prosecution and previous conviction in a civil lawsuit in the high-profile corruption case involving the Central Bank of Suriname (CBvS).
The attorney for Hoefdraad, who has been on the run, argues that his conviction is unlawful because it is based on an invalid indictment by the National Assembly during the 2020–2025 term.
The indictment was made under the leadership of then-Assembly Speaker Marinus Bee of the General Liberation and Development Party (ABOP), which had been a member of the former coalition government of then-President Chan Santokhi.
In May 2022, the French-based International Police Organization (INTERPOL) rejected a request from the Surinamese judicial authorities to place Hoefdraad on its international wanted list, stating it would not cooperate in what has been termed the “political prosecution of an ex-minister”.
In December 2021, Hoefdraad was sentenced in absentia by the Surinamese Court of Justice to 12 years in prison for violation of the Anti-Corruption Act and the Banking Act. He had been accused of having cooperated in the sale of real estate that placed the Central Bank of Suriname at a disadvantage.
The ex-minister has appealed against this conviction, and his lawyer, Murwin Dubois, said the INTERPOL decision means that Hoefdraad, who had gone into hiding since July 2020, is now able to move freely anywhere internationally.
Dubois told ECJ that his client could not be prosecuted because Parliament had not indicted him during the 2015–2020 term, led by Assembly Speaker Jennifer Simons, who is now President of Suriname.
He argued that a second indictment would violate the National Assembly’s rules of procedure that state that a decision taken once can only be revised if new or amended information becomes available that was not known at the time of the initial decision.
Dubois said that the second request from then-attorney general, Roy Baidjnath Panday, to Parliament, submitted in writing, contained no new or amended information.
He referred to the fact that Hoefdraad has been removed from INTERPOL’s international wanted list.
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