PARAMARIBO (Reuters) – Suriname’s fugitive former President Desi Bouterse has died at the age of 79, the country’s government announced on Wednesday, almost a year after he fled authorities to avoid jail following his conviction over the murder of 15 political activists in 1982.
The government said that Bouterse’s family informed them of his passing, but did not specify where he died. A week ago, Surinamese authorities raided his home, where supporters gathered to pay their respects on Wednesday morning, but did not find him.
President Chan Santokhi, who investigated the case as a police commissioner and later as justice minister, expressed condolences to Bouterse’s family and urged calm, calling on the public to maintain peace and order and engage in prayer during the holiday season.
Bouterse dominated politics in Suriname for decades, leading a coup in 1980 and finally leaving office in 2020. In 2019, he and six others were convicted of their role in the 1982 murders of 15 government critics, including lawyers, journalists, union leaders, soldiers, and university professors, for which Bouterse received a 20-year prison sentence.
Bouterse had claimed the murdered men were connected to a planned invasion of the former Dutch colony. After years of legal wrangling, he was ordered to report to prison in January but failed to show up. Despite avoiding prison, justice has caught up with the convicted former president, according to Reed Brody, a U.S. war crimes prosecutor who monitored the case for the International Commission of Jurists.
“Thanks to the victims’ relatives and their supporters who never gave up, Bouterse will go down in history as a convicted murderer,” Brody said.
The former president’s family is expected to make a statement later Wednesday.
