The Trinidad-based regional political analyst, Derek Ramsamooj, who has been waiting to leave the Dutch-speaking Caribbean Community (CARICOM) country for nearly two years, has been rushed to hospital, his relatives have confirmed.
They said Ramsamooj, who has worked as a political analyst in the Caribbean, including in Jamaica, Guyana, Grenada, Suriname, St Lucia, and St Kitts-Nevis, has been pleading to be allowed to leave the country to seek medical treatment overseas, was taken by ambulance to the hospital on Thursday “with a high fever and severe headache.”
The relative said he has since tested negative for the coronavirus (COVID-19) and his wife, Camille Pagee, said early indications are that a sudden infection triggered his underlying cardiovascular and diabetic conditions.
“Since October 2020 we have been pleading for his known health concerns to be taken more seriously by the government of Suriname. The Suriname government detained him for 75 days without charge in 2020, of which he spent over two weeks without access to legal counsel,” she said, adding that “for reasons which have not been explained neither his Trinidad nor his United Kingdom passport have been returned.
She said her husband is a United Kingdom national by birth and he has now been deprived of his ability to leave the country for over 18 months.
In January, she wrote to the Trinidad and Tobago Foreign and CARICOM Affairs Minister Dr Amery Browne, indicating that her husband was being “denied freedom of movement within CARICOM by the government of Suriname
In March, Suriname President Chandrikapersad “Chan” Santokhi, a former chief of police and justice minister, told reporters at the end of the CARICOM Inter-Sessional summit in Belize that the case will go to court in the “next coming days, 12 or so days from now”.
“Six months after initially taking away his passports, the Suriname police initiated a court process against him, which has been “a painfully slow and inept display,” she added.
She said at the last court session, the judge stated it was evident that no preliminary investigation had been done to establish whether a case was even justified “but still made no move to restore Derek’s freedom to seek medical care outside of the country.
“Doctors there have told us repeatedly that the medications, equipment, and the level of expertise to continue the heart treatments he was receiving in the United Kingdom up to 2019, simply don’t exist in Suriname.
In December 2020, Ramsamooj, 60, a diabetic, who had threatened to go on a hunger strike after claiming the authorities had given him no indication as to why he had been detained, told CMC that while he had been released from custody, he was not granted permission to leave the country.
“They have my computers, phone and passport,” he said then.
CMC/
