At 9 am this morning, a new hearing was held in Suriname on December 8 on the appeal against former President Desi Boutros. Today the judge ruled on the exceptions of Butters’ attorney, Erwin Kanhai. The result is that the process can be continued; All exceptions have just been rejected by the military court.
The military court decided earlier that the amnesty law could not be applied and continued the procedures. Kanhai believes that it is not permissible for the military court, only the civil judge to rule on the amnesty law. This would render the military court unable to continue the trial and Kanhai lodged an objection.
With Kanhai’s exemptions rejected, an objective handling of the Bouterse judgment can begin in the event of a default, as Kanhai also noted yesterday. The session was postponed until April 30, 2021, after which the substantive procedures would begin.
