Desi Bouterse: Suriname court seeks to uphold ex-president’s sentence

PROSECUTORS in Suriname have asked the High Court of Justice to uphold a 20-year jail sentence given to former President Desi Bouterse.

The 74-year-old was convicted in 2019 of ordering the extrajudicial execution of 15 political opponents four decades ago.

Bouterse has since been appealing against this ruling and cannot be arrested until the process ends.

The court is expected to rule on the sentence later this year.

Bouterse has denied involvement in the executions. He insists the victims - who included lawyers, union leaders and journalists - were shot while trying to escape a colonial-era fortress in Paramaribo, the capital of the South American country.

An appeal hearing for the former leader is currently under way and is expected to last until the end of March, after which time the High Court will announce its decision on the sentence.

Bouterse recently admitted in court that he had heard gunshots on the day the prisoners were killed but insisted he did not order their execution.

The Bahamas can make “a real dent” in its anti-corruption standing if it passes four critical laws this year, a governance reformer argued yesterday, having “missed the opportunity” in 2022.

Matt Aubry, the Organisation for Responsible Governance’s (ORG) executive director, told Tribune Business that enacting reforms to the Public Procurement Act and Public Disclosures Act, as well as passing legislation to create an Integrity Commission and Ombudsman, will send observers a message that The Bahamas is serious about combating corruption.

He spoke out after The Bahamas held its position in Transparency International’s annual Corruption Perceptions Index, ranking as the world’s 30th least corrupt nation in 2022 and maintaining the same ‘64 out of 100’ score it achieved in the prior year. This nation rated better than the likes of Spain, Italy and Portugal, all nations that form part of the European Union (EU) which has blacklisted The Bahamas for being ‘uncooperative’ on tax matters.

But Mr Aubry, while agreeing it was positive The Bahamas had maintained its perception as the second least corruption nation in the Caribbean behind only Barbados, added that the Transparency International index also indicated it was doing too little to improve the status quo in the world’s eyes.

“Indexes are important in several instances and, at the same time, they are not fully reflective,” the ORG chief told this newspaper.

“It’s important to recognise we haven’t dropped. But we were at the International Anti-Corruption Conference in Washington D. C. last December and we were participating with hundreds of organisations from around the world.

“What we’re learning is that corruption has so many destructive impacts at all levels on countries. There’s wastage from government procurement contracts not coming to fruition, citizens have to “pay to play” to access services, and there’s a lack of efficiency and effectiveness in government spending and decision-making. Those things are clearly present in our circumstance.”

Mr Aubry said, when viewed from another angle, 2022 was thus “a missed opportunity” for The Bahamas to improve both its standing in the Transparency International rankings and reduce perceptions of corruption that may exist internationally. He added that reforms had been enacted, but the country was receiving little credit for them.

“There are many things we are doing now that involve changes. We have greater reliance on technology, the digitisation of government services,” he added. “We have a Procurement Act that was passed and, had we followed it, it would have introduced a different level of transparency and integrity into government procurement.... If we bring these things to fruition, there should be a return on that,”

The ORG chief said The Bahamas was thus far failing to link such reforms together, with the Transparency International index showing it had “not really moved forward the way we could” and “moved us away from an environment where corruption flourishes”.

He added that there were real benefits to be gained from being “seen as a place where corruption does not flourish”, including individuals and companies more willing to follow the rule of and pay due taxes. The Bahamian business environment will also become more competitive, with the best qualified bidders winning government contracts so that tax dollars are put to their best and most efficient use.

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