Defense lawyer: Spare Bouterse jail time

Well aware that the end is very near, the lead attorney for former Surinamese ex-military dictator and two-time elected President Desi Bouterse has once again asked a court presiding over his mass murder trial to spare him from prison time as it would further divide the nation and leave an open wound that would be difficult to heal.

Irvin Kanhai told the panel of judges in his appeal hearing against a 20-year jail sentence that no jail time would be an act of “patriotic love” as he pleaded with the court to avoid imposing a prison sentence.

The former president was in court when Kanhai made the plea last weekend. The next hearing is scheduled for the end of next month. Bouterse, 77 and four other ex-soldiers are on trial for the December 1982 mass murders of 15 people, who the state had back then, accused of plotting with The Netherlands and other western nations to reverse the 1980 military coup that had toppled the elected administration of then Prime Minister Henck Arron. The 15, which had included four journalists, were executed at a Dutch colonial era fort right next to the presidential secretariat.

Patriotic love apart, the famed lawyer switched his strategy to blaming former colonial ruler, The Netherlands, for the mayhem in 1982 and some bloody events after that troubled period as The Dutch were desperate to recolonize Suriname after independence in 1975 and after losing much of its influence once the military had taken over the reins of power in  mineral and oil-rich Suriname in 1980.

“The Netherlands is fully responsible for the events of the second week of December 1982,” Kanhai said. “As head of government and army commander, Bouterse was primarily responsible for national security and he acted correctly at the time by arresting persons suspected of posing a threat to national security.” Bouterse is leader of the main opposition National Democratic Party (NDP).

But he did also argue that the state is yet to prove that Bouterse had given the orders for firing squads to carry out the execution. Premeditation has also not been established, he said.

Hugo Essed, the attorney for the victims did as well also refer to how divisive the protracted trial and events of 1982 have affected the nation of about 600,000 people but he is not pleading for mercy. The case has basically been before the court for more than 20 years.

“The dividing line of that division runs over Mr. Bouterse’s head. There is an antagonism. That is a contradiction that cannot be resolved, other than by the disappearance of one of the opposite poles. There is an insoluble contradiction between two parts of society, the dividing line of which runs over Bouterse’s head. A dividing line that stands in the way of brotherhood and cooperation,”

He says this division will come to an end if Bouterse and the others are sentenced and jailed in the coming weeks.