Lawyers For Desi Bouterse’s Family to Meet With Public Prosecution Service
PARAMARIBO, Suriname – The lawyers for the family of the late Suriname president, Desi Bouterse, say they have been invited for talks with the Public Prosecution Service (OM)after they had threatened to take legal action against the government for publicly disclosing the cause his death last week.
Desi Bouterse (File Photo)The lawyers, Murwin Dubois and Milton Castelen, had written a letter to the Attorney General Garcia Paragsingh caling on him to disclose at a news conference on January 2, why the autopsy report on Bouterse had been made public.
The OM in a press release said that Bouterse, 79, died from complications of liver failure due to severe liver fibrosis caused by chronic alcohol use, adding that the pathologist report showed the probable date of death was Monday or Tuesday last week.
But the family members said they became aware of the cause of death through the media noting that they also found that the detailed disclosure of the former president’s health information deeply distressing.
Dubois told the online publication, Starnieuws, that a reminder note was sent to the Attorney General when the January 2 deadline had passed.
He said Paragsingh has since invited the lawyers to a meeting on Thursday, adding “we accepted the invitation”.
The lawyers are also demanding that the Attorney General disclose no later than January 29, compensation measures for the surviving relatives to reduce the effects of the “irreversible damage” by the disclosure of Bouterse’s death..
They said that if the Attorney General refuses to comply with the request, legal measures will be taken immediately against the state.
In their letter, the lawyers reiterated that private medical information had been made public in violation of the legal principles of good governance, as well as fundamental rights and certainly in violation of the professional confidentiality applicable to the Attorney General.
According to the lawyers, there was no legitimate legal basis for disclosing specific medical information. There was also no consent from the relatives to provide the medical data to the media for disclosure.
The lawyers had also argued that the Public Prosecution Service ordered an autopsy, as Bouterse died outside a hospital, to determine if foul play was involved and to establish the approximate time of death.
Bouterse’s funeral took place on Saturday, January 4 and was attended by thousands of people.
But the government of President Chan Santokhi had said that it would not allow for a state funeral and that no foreign heads of state would be invite.
On 25 February 1980, Bouterse, as sergeant and chairman of the newly established military union, led a coup and deposed the democratically elected government of Prime Minister Henck Arron. The military then established the National Military Council (NMR), appointed a new government and suspended the Constitution and parliament. The policy under Bouterse’s regime led to what would later be known as the December murders.
Bouterse was sentenced to 20 years in prison by the Court of Justice in December 2023 on appeal for involvement in the murder of 15 people, including journalists, lawyers and human rights activists on December 8, 1982.
The court ruled that although no evidence was provided that Bouterse shot one or more of the victims himself, there was evidence that he gave the order to do so and was in control of the massacre from the beginning to the end.
Following his conviction Bouterse had been on the run ever since, along with his body guard, Iwan Dijksteel, who had also been sentenced to 15 years in jail.
