Tuesday, January 31, 2017

Bouterse case to resume

Judge Cynthia Valstein-Montnor
The military murder trial of Pres. Desi Bouterse of Suriname and 25 co-accuseds will resume on Feb. 9, according to this report. Excerpt:
Bouterse was elected president in a parliamentary vote in 2010 and re-elected in 2015. He pushed an amnesty law through parliament that would have ended his trial but that was ruled unconstitutional. 
In June, he directed the country's attorney general to immediately halt the legal proceedings against him, invoking an article of the constitution that allows the president to issue such an order in the interests of national security. 
But the presiding judge in the military court, Cynthia Valstein-Montnor, ruled the prosecution does not have the authority to withdraw a complaint after a trial has started.

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