2 3. The petition filed with the Commission on December 17, 1988, refers to the detention and subsequent death of Mr. Asok Gangaram Panday in Suriname. The petition was filed by the deceased's brother, Mr. Leo Gangaram Panday, and is summarized below by the Court: a. Mr. Asok Gangaram Panday was detained by the Military Police when he arrived at Zanderij Airport on Saturday, November 5, 1988, at 20:00 hours. Mr. Leo Gangaram Panday stated that he saw "the Military Police leading him to a room. His wife, Dropati, was with me and also saw him in police custody." b. On Sunday, November 6, Leo Gangaram Panday made repeated calls to the Military Police at the airport. At 16:30 hours, the commanding officer told him that his brother "was going to be transferred that night to Fort Zeeland, [because he was under arrest for] having been expelled from Holland." After repeated, fruitless calls, the Military Police at Fort Zeeland informed the petitioner on Tuesday, the eighth, that his brother had hanged himself. c. Leo Gangaram Panday and his lawyer, Geeta Gangaram Panday, went to see Attorney General Reeder, who knew nothing of the case. They all then proceeded to the morgue, along with Mr. Freitas, the Military Judge Advocate. At the morgue, they found the body of Asok Gangaram Panday, which was, "naked except for his underwear. The body presented hematomas on the chest and stomach and an orifice in the back. One of the eyes was black and blue and there was a cut on one lip. The hematomas were large [. . .] [The body] had a short belt around its neck." d. The petition went on to say that [t]he first autopsy report found that he had committed suicide. The report of the second autopsy stated that he had died as a result of asphyxia, but that it was impossible to ascribe responsibility for the death. The third autopsy concluded that the death had been caused by violence. e. The petitioner took a videotape of the body in the morgue before it was cremated. He asserts that when the underwear was removed from the body they saw, "that his testicles had been crushed." f. According to the petition, the Attorney General personally informed the petitioner's lawyer that it was a case of suicide; the family never received a written report; and the petitioner's lawyer advised him that, "he should not insist on pursuing this case with the Surinamese authorities because it [was] dangerous." 4. By note of December 21, 1988, the Commission requested the Government to provide information regarding the circumstances surrounding the death of Mr. Asok Gangaram Panday and granted it 90 days in which to do so. Among other things, the Commission asked for copies of all the findings of the various autopsies and for the post mortem and pathological reports on the case. Later, on February 6, 1989, the Commission transmitted the full text of the petition to the Government. 5. On May 3, 1989, the Commission received a reply to its communications of December 21, 1988, and February 6, 1989, in the form of a note from the Government dated May 2, 1989. In it, the Minister of Justice and Police stated that, on November 5, 1988, Asok Gangaram Panday had indeed, "been taken by the Military Police to a building for displaced persons (sic) at the Zanderij Airport." The letter went on to say: