Suriname - 2015 General Election
In the elections on May 25, 2015, Desi Bouterse's NDP emerged victorious and further strengthened the parliamentary elections of May 25, 2015. With an absolute majority of seats (27 seats out of 51), he no longer needed to form an alliance to govern, as was the case until now. The V7 coalition won 17 seats, and the party of Ronnie Brunswick 5. Désiré Bouterse was re-elected to the presidency of the Republic on July 14, 2015, by a large majority of the congress.
These elections were the first to be held after amendments were made in April 2012 to the country's amnesty act. They effectively dropped charges against the President for alleged human rights abuses committed under his military rule in the 1980s, including an event in 1982 known as "the December murders" when 15 opposition figures were killed. V7's presidential candidate Mr. Santokhi is a former police commissioner who led the investigation into the murders. He pledged to repeal the 2012 amendments to the amnesty act if elected. During the election campaign, the NDP focused attention on their achievements while in government, citing improvements in infrastructure. V7 promised to restore the rule of law, strengthen democracy and tackle corruption.
There were developments during 2016 in the trial of former military dictator and current President Bouterse and 21 codefendants for the 1982 extrajudicial killing of 15 political opponents. Following the November 2015 ruling of the Court of Justice to resume the trial, the prosecution requested that the court-martial continue to suspend trial proceedings. (The killings took place during a period of military dictatorship, and the majority of defendants were military.)
In early June 2016 the court-martial lifted the suspension and continued trial proceedings from the point at which they were suspended in 2012, after arguing that authorities had made no notable progress to resolve the constitutionality of the 2012 Amnesty Law and that a four-year suspension of trial proceedings violated reasonable limits. Given the continued absence of a constitutional court (which is required by the constitution but has never been established), the court-martial made use of its own constitutional mandate and ruled that the Amnesty Law did in fact infringe on a trial in progress. The court-martial also dismissed the cases against the three deceased defendants.
In June 2016, as the prosecutor prepared to deliver closing remarks and a sentencing recommendation in the case, the government invoked Article 148 of the constitution, which allows the government to order the attorney general to cease further prosecution of all suspects in the trial as a matter of state security. Based on instructions in the resolution, the prosecutor asked the court-martial to end the proceedings formally. The court-martial was scheduled to issue its ruling in January 2017. The court ruled against the motion because the trial had already started.
Suriname's incumbent president was sentenced to 20 years in prison for the killing of 15 political opponents 37 years ago. A military court in the South American country handed down the sentence to President Desi Bouterse on 29 November 2019. The court ruled that in 1982, Bouterse ordered soldiers under his command to abduct 16 people critical of the government, including lawyers and journalists, and kill 15 of them. He took power after being part of a 1980 coup as an army sergeant.
Bouterse had consistently denied the allegations. He took office as president in 2010 after staging another coup in 1990. Bouterse was on an official trip in China. The bereaved families of the victims demanded he step down immediately.
The United States and five European countries, including the Netherlands, issued a joint statement welcoming the verdict. The statement said it is critical that the final verdicts in the killing of 15 innocent citizens are implemented and upheld in accordance with the rule of law. It added that the verdicts will prove instrumental in helping the nation move toward reconciliation.
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