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GUYANA CHRONICLE Saturday March 7, 2015
Suriname abolishes death penalty By Marvin Hokstam
PARAMARIBO, SURINAME, (CMC) – THE National Assembly has approved legislation formally abolishing the death penalty in the Dutch-speaking Caribbean Community (CARICOM) country. But the legislators raised the highest prison term limits from 30 to 50 years in what is seen as a compromise to amending the Criminal code. Parliament also scrapped conditional release for people convicted of capital crimes. Convicts doing time for murder, manslaughter, sexual offences or major drug crimes are now no lon-
Suriname’s Justice Minister Edward Belfort ger eligible for release after serving three quarters of
their sentences. Justice Minister Edward Belfort had initially suggested that that maximum jail sentence be increased to 30 years, but parliamentarians deemed it necessary to send an even stronger signal to criminals. Crime has been on the rise and parliamentarians argued that criminals were exhibiting almost sadistic behaviour, often leaving victims dead or gravely injured. They favoured hiking the maximum jail sentence instead to 50 years, “for crimes that would otherwise be punished with the death penalty,” the National Assembly said in a statement. “The punishments for
major crimes have been increase . That is a clear signal,” said Ruth Wijdenbosch, the Vice Chair of the National Assembly said at the end of the meeting. She was among the parliamentarians who worked to have the death penalty removed from the criminal code. Suriname has not implemented the death penalty since 1927, but the capital punishment remained included in the country’s Criminal Code. Last year Belfort went on record as saying that there is no need for the death penalty, because as far as he was concerned capital punishment
was not having the desired effect in the countries where it is applied. “We leave the crimes people commit to their consciences; in the meantime we (do our best to) catch them and bring them to justice,” he said, then, noting that he is not a giver of life and would not encourage taking of a life. In the statement issued by the National Assembly, it noted that the new legislation to abolish the death penalty puts Suriname in line with international trend. The approval of the new criminal code has been nine years in the making. The amended legislation includes punish-
ments for cybercrime and terrorism; these crimes were not included in the old law. Belfort also presented a re-socialisation plan for convicts to the National Assembly. He told legislators that the plan focuses on reintroducing repeat offenders to the community, by taking them through a tight regimen of social development. Houses of detention will be transformed to houses of correction where convicts are prepared for their reintroduction. Belfort said the plan also takes into consideration the legal protection of convicts as well the com-
ST. Lucia PM leaves Venezuela CASTRIES, St. Lucia, (CMC) – PRIME Minster Dr. Kenny Anthony was due to leave Venezuela yesterday after attending a special meeting of heads of state and governments whose countries are members of the Caracas led PetroCaribe oil initiative and the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of
Our America (ALBA). Anthony said that the meeting while it had been convened to discuss issues related to PetroCaribe and ALBA, it presented a great opportunity to extend thanks to Venezuela and ALBA for their assistance and to explore new areas of cooperation. “Venezuela and ALBA
have been exceedingly generous to St. Lucia and this is another opportunity to say thank you. The ALBA Bridge was recently completed and our students are currently receiving laptops made available by Venezuela. “To date we have received over EC$37 million (One EC dollar =US$0.37 cents) in grant funding from
ALBA. For this we are grateful,” he said. Anthony said that “It is my hope that we will be successful in getting further assistance.” O n T h u r s d a y, t h e Prime Minister attended the commemoration of the second anniversary of the death of Former President Hugo Chavez.
Ruling party crushes opposition in Local Government polls B E L M O PA N , B e l i z e , (CMC) – THE ruling United Democratic Party (UDP) won a crushing victory in Wednesday’s Local Government elections that political observers said would have served as a baramoter for the general election expected in two years’ time. The Dean Barrow led UDP won as many as 61 of the 67 seats contested with the main People’s United Party (PUP) the remaining six. Chief Elections Officer Josephine Tamai had indicated that 165, 644 persons were eligible to vote in the election and following the preliminary results, PUP leader Francis Fonseca said he had no plans to resign. “In the wake of any election defeat, and certainly this was a very decisive defeat… for the People’s United Party with potentially two years to come before a general election. I think everybody has to take a look at themselves and it starts with the leader.
“The leader has to look at himself in the mirror, the leader has to self-examine. So I think it’s an absolutely legitimate question, but I have given no thought to resignation,” he said. ‘We went into this election with our eyes wide open. We understood that there was a huge imbalance in terms of resources. We have consistently said, and I have consistently said, that I believe that the line between the government treasury and the UDP coffers has virtually disappeared, and I think that should be an issue of legitimate concern for all Belizeans,” Fonseca said. But he said the party has accepted the results, adding “we have to get up and fight. “We have to determine ways of putting in place a very comprehensive campaign financing programme for our party. That is the reality. We need more money than we have now to adequately and properly fight these elections, and I believe
that we will be able to do so.” Darrell Bradley, the incumbent Mayor of Belize City said his party was pleased with the results while Kevin Bernard, the Mayor, Orange Walk Town, the only municipality won by the PUP told reporters “
“I can only say that I am happy. I want to thank the people who came out and exercised their vote for whatever party.” In 2012, when both the general and local elections were held, the UDP won 17 of the 31 seats in the general election.
Prime Minster Dr. Kenny Anthony