A high-profile criminal case centered on former Central Bank of Suriname (CBvS) governor Robert Van Trikt, tied to the unexplained disappearance of commercial banks’ mandatory cash reserves back in 2019, was once again delayed during a scheduled Monday court hearing, 27 October. The adjournment stems from the Surinamese Public Prosecution Service (Openbaar Ministerie, OM) failing to comply with a prior explicit court order issued by judge Rewita Chatterpal on 27 July to turn over four seized mobile phones belonging to Van Trikt to his legal defense team.
Van Trikt, represented by seasoned attorneys Irvin Kanhai and Chandra Algoe, argued at the opening of the proceedings that a full, fair defense was impossible without access to the original data stored on the four devices. The legal team emphasized that lead investigating officer Zamier Pierkhan had drawn heavily on content from these phones to compile his official inquiry report, which forms the core of the prosecution’s incriminating evidence against the former central bank head.
Van Trikt explicitly contested the veracity of the information presented in Pierkhan’s report, alleging the investigator had deliberately omitted full segments of app-based communications and arbitrarily translated passages out of their original context to frame misleading narratives. He told the court that unaltered, original records on the phones would reveal a far different set of circumstances than the skewed interpretation laid out in the prosecution’s investigative document.
Judge Chatterpal openly expressed visible surprise that the OM had not fulfilled her earlier order to release the devices, pressing lead prosecutor Romeo Rampersad for a formal explanation for the non-compliance. Rampersad claimed his office faced ambiguity regarding the legal status of a prior separate criminal conviction against Van Trikt, and how that ruling applied to the seized mobile devices. This justification drew sharp pushback from Van Trikt’s legal counsel, who dismissed the explanation as baseless, noting the 2019 cash reserves case is an entirely distinct legal proceeding unrelated to the earlier CBvS corruption case that resulted in Van Trikt’s prior conviction. The defense further criticized Rampersad for claiming unfamiliarity with a public, publicly accessible court ruling from the fully concluded earlier case, calling the oversight unacceptable and a deliberate obstruction of their client’s right to examine evidence used against him.
After a heated, extended exchange between prosecution and defense, judge Chatterpal reaffirmed that her July order was legally binding and that Van Trikt was entitled to full access to the data on his seized phones to properly vet the prosecution’s evidence. The court granted both parties a window to coordinate the formal handover of the devices, and formally rescheduled the full continuation of the trial – which was set to move into the phase of direct cross-examination of Van Trikt – to 25 January 2027.
Van Trikt had been released from custody on 12 August 2026, after serving several months of a remaining prison sentence tied to his prior conviction for criminal offenses committed during his tenure as CBvS governor in the earlier corruption case. Former Surinamese Finance Minister Gillmore Hoefdraad, a co-defendant in that first CBvS case, remains a fugitive from justice to date. The separate 2019 missing cash reserves case, which was formally filed while Van Trikt was serving his prior sentence, accuses him of misappropriating pooled cash reserves that multiple commercial banks had deposited for safekeeping with the national central bank. The court confirmed all parties align that no further questioning of the defendant can proceed until the defense team has completed a full independent audit of the original mobile phone data, in line with Suriname’s statutory fair trial protections.
Strafzaak kasreserves: OM heeft telefoons Van Trikt, ondanks rechterlijk bevel niet afgestaan
