PARAMARIBO, Suriname, CMC – The Public Prosecution Service (OM) Tuesday demanded that former president and military strongman, Desi Bouterse, be jailed for 20 years for complicity in the murder of 15 men on December 8, 1982.
Acting Attorney General, Carmen Rasam, said that Bouterse must be held responsible for the murders and that enough evidence had been provided during the trial.
Bouterse had been sentenced to 20 years in jail for his involvement in the December 1982 murders of 15 political opponents by his then-military government.
In August 2021, the Court Martial of Suriname upheld the 2019 military court ruling of a 20-year jail term on Bouterse following a trial that had been going on for several years.
In 2017, Bouterse, along with 23 co-defendants, had appeared in the Military Court after the Court of Justice had earlier rejected a motion to stop the trial. The former military officers and civilians had been charged with December 8, 1982, murders of 15 men, including journalists, military officers, union leaders, lawyers, business people, and university lecturers.
The prosecution had alleged that the men were arrested on December 7 and 8 and transferred to Fort Zeelandia, the then headquarters of the Surinamese National Army. They said the men were tortured and summarily executed.
Earlier this month, attorney Irvin Kanhai, who is also representing Iwan Dijksteel, Stephanus Dendoe, Benny Brondenstein, and Ernst Geffery, challenged the objectivity of the military judge, Colonel Dennis Kamperveen, claiming that one of the victims, André Kamperveen and the judge, have a typical grandfather. The men are challenging their 10-year jail term.
But the Public Prosecution Service argued that it did not need to hear witnesses during the appeal process, reiterating its call for Bouterse, 77, who led Suriname during the 1980s as head of a military government and de facto leader, to be arrested and given his unconditional prison sentence.
Bouterse took office as president in 2010, following a democratic election, and was elected for another term in 2015.
During the trial by the court-martial, the military judge said that Bouterse had acted as God and decided about life and death. But Bouterse had argued during the trial that he was not present at the fort when the men were shot.
Before the start of the hearing on Tuesday, Bouterse said that he was not concerned about the matter, telling reporters he had “other things” on his mind that was giving him a headache, including the current situation in the country.
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