Appealing Jail Term

ROTTERDAM, Netherlands, May 8, CMC – President Desi Bouterse is making another effort to have dismissed the conviction and jail sentence imposed on him in absentia by a court in the Netherlands.

His attorney, Inez Weski, has the Dutch newspaper, Telegraaf that his client has filed an appeal against the 11-year jail term handed out by the court here in 1999.
She said that Patrick van L., the Belgian who had given incriminating statements against Bouterse has since recanted his story and for years has tried to clean the President’s slate.

Weski said Van L. was under pressure when he incriminated Bouterse. The attorney said that the Prosecutor’s Office had offered him a lesser sentence for his involvement in the 474 kilogram cocaine shipment that was intercepted in the Netherlands in 19997, if he would help them build a case against Bouterse, the then former army sergeant who rose to power following a coup in 1980.