The son of Suriname President Dési Bouterse got a big break from a sympathetic judge Tuesday when he was sentenced to 16 ¼ years in prison for attempting to assist the terrorist group Hezbollah in planning attacks on the US and conspiring to import cocaine.
With the government seeking at least 30 years to life in prison for Dino Bouterse — whose father Desi Bouterse is the drug-trafficking president of Suriname – Manhattan federal Judge Shira Scheindlin decided to go light on the defendant. The judge – who’s best known for infuriating the NYPD by ordering an overhaul of its stop-and-frisks procedures — agreed with Bouterse’s lawyers that there is no proof a threat to the US was imminent despite their client getting caught in an undercover federal sting operation agreeing to help Hezbollah set up terror training camps in his country in exchange for $2 million.
“Whether [the plan] would have come to fruition, I don’t know,” Scheindlin told prosecutors. “There weren’t terrorists at our doorsteps.”
Bouterse had copped a plea deal with the government last August after being busted in 2013 in an undercover Drug Enforcement Administration sting operation trying to smuggle a rocket launcher, some guns and a 22 pounds of cocaine into the US.
With his mother, Ingrid, and other loved ones weeping nearby in the courtroom, Bouterse, 42, begged Scheindlin for leniency on behalf of his 11 children, ages 2 to 19, who, he said, need their father. He also claimed to “respect” America, adding “I am not a terrorist” and “deeply ashamed” for his actions.
“What I did does not represent my country,” said Bouterse, who later described Suriname as a “country with no place for religious extremists.”
However, Assistant US Attorney Michael Lockard pointed out that the “multiculturalism” of Suriname makes it easy to “hide” terrorists.
Bouterse was recorded in Europe telling confidential sources and undercover DEA agents that he wanted to host 30 to 60 Hezbollah members in Suriname for training and operations, the indictment says. He also said he wanted a Hezbollah cell there — in part to serve as his personal armed forces.
In one conversation, a confidential source told Bouterse, “from what I heard, … there is not much love between you and the Americans.”
Bouterse responded, “We have a problem with the Dutch. And Americans.”
His father, President Dési Bouterse, was convicted in absentia by a Netherlands court in 1999 of smuggling over 1,000 pounds of cocaine into the country — but never served any prison time.
The elder Bouterse is a former military dictator accused of human-rights violations, including the killings of 15 political opponents in December 1982. He ruled the tiny country from 1980 to 1987 and regained power in 2010.