PARAMARIBO, Suriname – Attorney General, Garcia Paragsing, says despite facing a shortage of resources, the Public Prosecution Service (OM) and the police are working round the clock to ensure the arrest of former president Desi Bouterse.
INTERPOL Red Notice issued for former president Desi Bouterse (File Photo)“I depend on the information from the intelligence services. They and other police forces are facing a shortage of resources,” Paragsing told the Suriname-based on line publication, Starnieuws, adding Bouterse’s arrest is matter of time.
In March, the International Police (INTERPOL) placed Bouterse on its Red Notice list, after he was sentenced to 20 years in jail for murder in December last year.
A ‘Red Notice’ is an official request to law enforcement authorities worldwide to locate and provisionally arrest an individual pending extradition, surrender or similar legal action. It is based on an arrest or court order issued by the judicial authorities in the requesting country.
But, the whereabouts of Bouterse, 78, remains a mystery after he first failed to keep his scheduled appointment in January to report to the prison in Santo Boma just south of the capital, Paramaribo.
“Until the last minute, his lawyer assured us that Bouterse would report at 6 p.m.” When he did not show up, the PG gave the order to the police: track him down and arrest him. The home addresses of Bouterse and Dijksteel were visited and after the internal investigation report, national and international investigation reports followed.
“At no time did we get the impression that Bouterse did not cooperate in the execution of the sentence. Or that he would make himself untraceable. The arrest is a matter of time,” Paragsingh said, referring to the recent arrest of Joël ‘Bordo’ Martinus who was wanted by the Brazilian police on the basis of a Red Notice issued by INTERPOL.
Bouterse, who was not present when the Court of Justice had issued the ruling in December last year, 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 along with 23 co-defendants 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 the December 8, 1982, murders of the 15 men that included journalists, military officers, union leaders, lawyers, businessmen and university lecturers.
The prosecution had alleged that the men were arrested on the nights of 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.
Three of the co-convicted retired soldiers, Ernst Gefferie, 81, Stephanus Dendoe 68 and Benny Brondenstein 68, all reported to prison. But Bouterse and his bodyguard, Iwan Dijksteel remain on the run.
Paragsingh told the online publication that she has received a list of much-needed resources from the police after her visit to the Combating Serious Crime department of the Suriname Police Force. The list includes vehicles, computers and optical equipment such as cameras and night vision goggles.
Paragsingh said that while efforts are being made to meet the resource needs of the lw enforcement officials, they are continuing their search of Bouterse.
She said people are not sit back in a chair with their hands behind their heads, waiting for tips from outside.
“We received some tips about Bouterse, but after further elaboration the information turned out to be futile,” she said, indicating howrver she remains hopeful that the police led by Chief of Police Bryan Isaacs, who was appointed in March this year, will succeed in tracking down the former leader.
“He makes do with the available resources and is busy with internal changes. I can have contact with colleagues at the level of attorney general, but they are also dependent on their investigative services,” Paragsingh said.
“I don’t receive any direct information from foreign services. That happens at police-police level and the contacts are quite good.”
