GENEVA, CMC – UN experts have welcomed the recent decision by Suriname’sSuriname’s highest Court to uphold the 20-year prison sentence of former president Desiré Bouterse for the torture and extrajudicial execution of 15 political opponents in 1982.
“The verdict demonstrates that there is no statute of limitations, special immunities for heads of State, or amnesties for serious human rights violations for crimes under international law, including enforced disappearances, torture, and extrajudicial killings,” the experts said.
“Despite the lapse of 41 years since the crime occurred, justice has finally been served to the victims,” said the experts that included Morris Tidball-Binz, Special-Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, Alice Jill Edwards, Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment and Margaret Satterthwaite, special rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers.
Bouterse, who was not present when the Court of Justice had issued the ruling last month, had appealed against his conviction that had been handed down in August 2021, when the Court Martial of Suriname upheld the 2019 military court ruling of a 20-year-jail term following a trial that had been going on for several years.
In 2017, Bouterse and 23 co-defendants appeared in the military Court after the Court of Justice rejected a motion to stop the trial. The former army officers and civilians had been charged with December 8, 1982, murders of 15 men, including journalists, military officers, union leaders, lawyers, businessmen, and university lecturers.
The prosecution had alleged that the men were arrested on December 7 and 8 nights and transferred to Fort Zeelandia, the then headquarters of the Surinamese National Army. They said the men were tortured and summarily executed.
Police in the Dutch-speaking Caribbean Community (CARICOM) country have since launched a search for the 78-year-old Bouterse, who did not show up at the prison last Friday as scheduled to start serving his prison sentence.
Three of the co-convicted retired soldiers, Ernst Gefferie, 81, Stephanus Dendoe, 68, and Benny Brondenstein, 68, all reported to prison. But the fifth convict, Iwan Dijksteel, did not show up and, like Bouterse, is on the run.
Bouterse and his political party, the National Democratic Party (NDC), have always stated that
In their statement, the UN experts said, “The highest Court that recently upheld the verdict and the Court that convicted a sitting President in November 2019 must be commended for their independence and courage. “”
In 2012, the Suriname National Assembly adopted an amendment to the 1989 Amnesty Law, which granted Bouterse and others amnesty for the 1982 crimes, leading to the suspension of the trial.
The amendment to the Amnesty Law was ruled unconstitutional, and a Court in 2019 convicted then-President Bouterse and sentenced him to 20 years imprisonment.
“Torture, enforced disappearance, and extrajudicial executions are crimes under international law,” the experts said, stressing that relevant international standards should conduct investigations and prosecutions of such crimes and must aim to ensure that those responsible are brought to justice.
They said it is also intended to promote accountability and to prevent impunity, referring in particular to the Istanbul Protocol on Effective Investigation and Documentation of Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment and the Minnesota Protocol on the Investigation of Potentially Unlawful Death.
“The obligation to investigate and hold accountable perpetrators includes enforced disappearances. The highest Court’s ruling is a tribute to the strength of the rule of law in Suriname and the remarkable perseverance and tenacity of the victim’s victims’ families,” the experts said.
They noted that Suriname had set an example of accountability for serious human rights violations, irrespective of a defendant’s status and the time elapsed since the crimes, which, due to their gravity, are not subject to any statute of limitations.
“The landmark decision must now be implemented without further delay, and any convicted individual absconding should be immediately arrested,” the experts said.
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