(de Ware Tijd) PARAMARIBO – Human rights organization ‘Allied Collective’ is dragging the State of Suriname before the Inter-American Court for Human Rights (ICHR) for what it calls the “probable summary execution” by the police of three notorious criminals and a fourth person at the Maretraite project in Tout Lui Faut Tuesday evening.
The complaint is being drafted and will be sent to the ICHR in two weeks’ time. Besides this case, two others will be submitted to the Court in which the police are also accused of “probable summary executions”. “The State should create a picture of law and justice and not of terror and violence,” says Robert Hewitt of ‘Allied Collective’. He refuses to divulge details about these three cases, but his main argument is that the police may only use force of arms to defend themselves. Tuesday’s four victims were unarmed. “The police may not create the impression that they will shoot suspects. Under the rule of law, a suspect should be considered innocent until proven guilty by the judge,” Hewitt says.
At a press conference on Wednesday, acting police Chief Humphrey Tjin Liep Shie, Justice and Police Minister Edward Belfort and Prosecutor General Subhaas Punwasi stated that the police took the right action Tuesday evening. Aside from the fact that these criminals had been on a violent spree for fifteen years, they allegedly ignored the police’s summons to surrender, so the police had to use force of arms. Hewitt states in reaction to this that only the judge may decide the fate of a suspect, regardless of the charges. This principle would be very important, particularly in the case of innocent suspects. “The police must prove to the judge whether the accusations are true.”
