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No request for asylum from Bouterse – VP Jagdeo
Former President of Suriname, Desi Bouterse
Kaieteur News – Former Surinamese President Desi Bouterse has made no request to seek asylum in Guyana, Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo told reporters on Thursday.
Jagdeo was at the time responding to a question posed by Kaieteur News on the subject. He was asked, “Would the Government of Guyana consider granting him asylum?”
In response, the Vice President said “I am not aware that former president Bouterse has requested asylum in Guyana, so where is this issue coming from?”
The Vice President was also asked whether he and Bouterse are friends to which he said he has many friends around the Caribbean Region.
“I saw Ralph Gonsalves wrote the President of Venezuela, and said I spoke with Irfaan Ali and my friend Jagdeo, that should have caused a major problem too. Just a letter which went a few days ago when there was this issue about Ralph was posing behind some picture of Venezuela and I consider a lot of the Caribbean leaders friends etc. so what’s the problem with that?” said Jagdeo who was speaking at his weekly press conference held at Office of the President.
Vice President, Bharrat Jagdeo
Reuters recently reported that the Surinamese authorities are in search of Bouterse after he failed to show up at prison to begin his 20-year sentence for his involvement in the murders of 15 activists in 1982.
Back in December of 2023, a three-judge panel affirmed the convictions of the ex-President and four other persons. While Bouterse was ordered this week to report to jail, his wife, Ingrid Bouterse-Waldring, told journalists outside their home last week Friday, “He’s not going to turn himself in.”
Lawyer Irvin Kanhai, arriving at the prison in Paramaribo, Suriname’s capital, with two of the other men convicted in the case said he would talk with the former leader.
“I am going to talk to him now and then we will see what we are going to do,” Kanhai said. “I don’t know him (to do anything) other than to bow his head to law and justice.”
Bouterse dominated politics in the former Dutch colony for decades and left office in 2020.
He has denied the charges but was sentenced to 20 years in prison. One of his co-defendants also failed to report to the prison.
“The public prosecutor’s office has started the process of tracing those convicted in the December 8 criminal case who have not reported to the penal institution as stated in the order for execution of sentences,” the prosecutor’s office said in a statement.
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