Many Suriname prison escapees living in Holland

(De Ware Tijd) PARAMARIBO – In a statement issued yesterday about the controversy surrounding nine escaped convicts from Suriname who were exposed in the TV-program of crime reporter Peter R. de Vries, the Dutch Government Information Service (RVD) says that the Dutch authorities have repeatedly showed their willingness to take action against persons who fled from Suriname to the Netherlands. With that objective, the Dutch have frequently asked the Surinamese authorities to either apply for judicial assistance or provide more information about the cases in question. According to the statement, as long as the Netherlands does not have this material available, extradition is not possible and prosecution in the Netherlands has little chance of success. The Dutch say they are awaiting the requests for judicial assistance and are willing to cooperate. “It is a long list, far more than the nine exposed by De Vries”, police commissioner Humprey Tjin Liep Shie tells DWT. According to him, the important thing is a good cooperation. Tjin Liep Shie calls for a more effective way of cooperating so that criminals will serve their sentence. He points out that Suriname must do its homework and build good case files and present relevant documentation, so it will no longer be blamed if things go wrong.