PARAMARIBO--In a surprising twist, the mother of the girl who was supposedly sexually abused by members of a Dutch rap group, has withdrawn her accusations. Her change of heart comes as her daughter called for the community and police to stop “so that everyone can just go on with their lives.” It remains to be seen, however, if police will back off from a criminal case in which the evidence is in hand.
The three rappers from The Hague – Frenna, Priceless and KM of rap group Strictly Family Business (SFB) – were arrested in Paramaribo on Thursday, December 29, 2016 for sexual abuse of a minor. The young men, whose real names are Francis Edusei, Jackie Osei and Kaene Marica had group sex with a 15-year-old girl in Paramaribo two years ago, and then shared video footage of their sexual misconduct on social media. In December they returned to Suriname to perform at a festival in Paramaribo and were busted in their hotel rooms shortly after their show. On Tuesday, January 3, they were led before the Judge of Instruction, who deemed their arrests justified and decided that their pre-detention should be extended with at least another 30 days.
The arrests had become the topic of Suriname’s year end. While some of their followers and rapper friends voiced anger at police for arresting the men, most people in the Surinamese community – both in the Netherlands and in Suriname – were finding malicious pleasure in the arrests, pointing out that the men must have been aware of the girl’s young age, but that they were obviously fooled by their perceived stardom and invincibility.
The commotion was what prompted the mother to withdraw her initial complaint against the rappers. At least one local newspaper quoted from a statement she sent to the police on January 1, in which she said that she had not expected all the attention the case drew.
Her daughter, whose name now circulates in the community also spoke out against the arrests, saying in a voice message on social media that she did not appreciate all the publicity, because the sex had been consensual. “We are adolescents aren’t we? I want everything to be aborted, because this can head in the wrong direction,” she said.
She called on her “friends” to “stop sharing the “b*******” – an obvious reference to the sex video – and for people to stop saying that she was a “whore.” “And even if I were a whore, so what?” she said, stressing that the incident is in her past and that she is happy in her current relationship.
With the “victim’s” defence of her “abusers” and her mother’s withdrawal of her complaint, it now remains to be seen if authorities will consider this reason to cease prosecution of the rappers. The girl was a minor at the time of the sexual encounter and thus a crime was committed. Suriname’s penal code punishes sex with a minor with a maximum sentence of 12 years. For spreading child pornography a Judge could mete out a maximum sentence of six years.
The rappers’ attorney, Humphrey Schuurman, has said that the mother’s withdrawal might give him more room to fight the rappers’ detention. He said though that in this stage of the case, he preferred not to react to it further yet.
