(De Ware Tijd) BOXEL – Former labor leader Siegfried Gilds has “a good feeling” now that he has been able to refute slurs made against the late labor leader/politician Fred Derby in court. He stated this to DWT after having been questioned by the court-martial in the ‘December murders’ trial at Boxel yesterday. Gilds had been summoned by Irwin Kanhai, lawyer of prime suspect Desi Bouterse, as a witness for the defense because he, Gilds, could provide exculpatory statements for Bouterse. Gilds says that at first, he did not want to answer Kanhai’s summons, because the lawyer has parroted Bouterse in calling Derby a mole and traitor without having any evidence to back it. Gilds later changed his mind because he would then get an opportunity to refute these accusations. When questioned by both Kanhai and members of the court-martial, Gilds denied many times that Derby had been a mole or traitor. According to Gilds, the fact that Derby was the only one of the sixteen people arrested on December 7, 1982 to survive the subsequent bloodbath is because Bouterse would never have been able to provide a plausible explanation for Derby’s possible death.
