A District Court judge has sentenced a Dutch national to 24 years in jail after he was found guilty of killing his wife during their vacation to the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) country last year.
Justice Cynthia Klein sentenced Rotterdam resident Radj H. to prison for killing his wife, Shama Mathoera, after she found that the case against him for manslaughter had been proven. The Public Prosecution Service had sought a 30-year prison sentence for murder and disposing of the body. But the judge said it could not be established with sufficient certainty that the crime was premeditated, convicting the accused of manslaughter instead of murder.
The court heard that Radj H had killed his partner, buried her body in a wooded area near their lodgings in the Saramacca district . The 24-year jail sentence will be reduced by the time the defendant has already spent in pretrial detention.
Radj H. was arrested on September 4 last year, after police launched an investigation into the disappearance of his 52-year-old wife. The couple, from Rotterdam, were in Suriname for a three-month vacation and were scheduled to return to the Netherlands in early September. But Mathoera’s family raised an alarm at around the time they were due to return after indicating that they had not been able to contact her by phone.
Radj H. initially assured the family that nothing was wrong and that the woman had already left for the Netherlands, but his statements became increasingly unconvincing. Eventually, family members filed a missing persons report, after which the police launched an investigation.
While searching the residence, officers found a woman’s purse wrapped in a plastic bag. Inside the purse were the missing woman’s personal belongings, including her passport, mobile phone, and jewelry.
Radj H. said he had no knowledge how the purse ended up on the property with the court being told that the police found his statements incoherent and contradictory.
Along with family members, police combed the area around the property and discovered a narrow path with fresh tracks. In the adjacent woods, officers found a recently excavated area. After excavation, Shama Mathoera’s remains were found and transferred to the morgue for forensic examination.
The police said that they had detained a woman who had had an extramarital affair with the suspect. But She was later released because it could not be proven that she was involved in the crime.