The son of the president of Suriname received leniency from a US judge who ordered him to serve over 16 years in prison, about half of the 30-to-life term the US government sought after he admitted that he offered a home base in his South American country to Hezbollah, the Lebanese militant group.
US District Judge ordered Dino Bouterse, whose father had once picked him to lead a counterterrorism unit, to serve 16 years and three months in prison after he wrote a letter insisting he had no terrorist leanings and was motivated only to make several million dollars.
The case stemmed from a US Drug Enforcement Administration sting. During his August guilty plea, Bouterse admitted providing a fake passport to someone he believed was a Hezbollah operative. The 42-year-old pleaded guilty to charges including attempting to provide material support to a terrorist organisation, conspiracy to import drugs, and firearms violations. The charges carried a mandatory minimum of 15 years in prison.
"This is something I really regret and of which I am deeply, deeply, deeply ashamed!!" he wrote. "But again, I take responsibility for my irresponsible and thoughtless actions."
Bouterse said his family was "paying heavily because of the politics and my father's position that greatly magnified my negative acts."
Bouterse's father, Desi Bouterse, led a military dictatorship in Suriname in the 1980s then returned to power when he was elected president by the country's parliament in 2010. He was accused of human rights violations when the country was under military rule, and he was convicted in absentia in the Netherlands on drug trafficking charges in 1999.