Probe Urged over Terror Charges for Suriname Leader's Son

Suriname's political opposition Sunday called for a criminal probe into whether a son of President Desi Bouterse broke local laws, after the U.S. charged him with attempting to support a terrorist group.

The Nieuw Front party urged the attorney general to look into the case of Dino Bouterse, 41, after a U.S. indictment Friday charging him with attempting to supply weapons and give a base to Hizbullah.

Citing recently adopted anti-terrorism laws, the party called on the attorney general "to determine which criminal offenses have been committed ... and to investigate them."

Dino Bouterse, the director of Suriname's anti-terrorism unit, was arrested in Panama in August and extradited to the United States on drug smuggling charges.

On Friday in New York he was slapped with additional federal charges of attempting to support Hizbullah, which the United States considers a terrorist group.

Bouterse was arrested after a meeting with undercover U.S. agents posing as Hizbullah associates to discuss hosting 30 to 60 Hizbullah members in Suriname for training and operations.

According to the indictment, Bouterse was given millions of dollars to allow dozens of purported Hizbullah operatives to use Suriname as a base.

He also allegedly started to determine which heavy weapons he could provide the group, and how these operatives, supplied with a Surinamese cover story, might enter the United States.

In a weekend video message, Foreign Minister Winston Lackin did not comment on the charges directly, but said that Suriname was a peaceful country and terrorism did not fit into its history or way of life.

Dino Bouterse's defense team insisted in a statement that their client was framed and indicted on false charges.

The U.S. indictment states that Bouterse knew that the purported Hizbullah operatives would move against U.S. targets.

Dino Bouterse was previously jailed in 2005 after a judge in Suriname convicted him of leading a gang that trafficked cocaine and weapons.

He was released after serving three years of an eight-year sentence.

Desi Bouterse was elected president by parliament in 2010 but led a ruling military junta from 1980-1987, during the former Dutch colony's civil war.