Amnesty ends murder trial for Suriname’s president

PARAMARIBO, Suriname – Lawmakers approved amnesty legislation Wednesday that pardons Suriname’s president for crimes committed under his earlier military dictatorship, rejecting pleas that his murder trial be allowed to run its course.

The National Assembly, which is dominated by President Desi Bouterse’s political coalition, passed the bill 28-12 after 12 hours of debate.

The amnesty ends the long-running trial for Bouterse and 24 associates on charges of abducting and murdering 15 prominent political opponents in December 1982, said Delegate Ricardo Panka, a member of the president’s National Democratic Party who argued that the amnesty was necessary to unify a divided country.

“We hope that what we do today in history will be marked as the first step toward a renewed Suriname,” Panka said in the closing debate.

During the debate, the governing coalition modified the legislation to include establishment of a truth commission to examine the killings involved in Bouterse’s trial.