By Ank Kuipers
PARAMARIBO (Reuters) – Suriname’s fugitive former president Desi Bouterse has died aged 79, the country’s government said on Wednesday, almost a year after he fled authorities following his conviction for the 1982 killings of 15 political activists was to avoid a prison sentence.
“The government has been informed by the family and its own investigation of the death of Mr D. Bouterse, former president of the Republic of Suriname,” Foreign Minister Albert Ramdin told Reuters.
The former leader died on Tuesday, the government said, without confirming where or in which country. Last week, Surinamese authorities searched his home – where supporters gathered to pay their respects on Wednesday morning – but did not find him.
Surinamese President Chan Santokhi, who investigated the case as police commissioner and later as justice minister, expressed his condolences to Bouterse’s family and urged calm in a statement.
“In the spirit of the holidays and the end of the year, the President calls on everyone to remain dignified and calm, maintain peace and order and pray in the spirit of these special days,” the statement said.
Bouterse dominated politics in the small South American country for decades, leading a coup in 1980 and ultimately leaving office in 2020.
In 2019, he and six others were convicted of their involvement in the 1982 murder of 15 leading government critics – including lawyers, journalists, union leaders, soldiers and university professors – for which Bouterse received a 20-year prison sentence.
Bouterse had claimed that the murdered men were linked to a planned invasion of the former Dutch colony.
After years of legal back and forth, Bouterse was ordered to report to prison in January, but he failed to show up at the scheduled appointment.
Although Bouterse avoided prison by escaping, Reed Brody, a U.S. war crimes prosecutor who supervised the case for the International Commission of Jurists, said justice had caught up with the convicted former president before his death.
“Thanks to the victims’ families and their supporters who never gave up, Bouterse will go down in history as a convicted murderer,” Brody said.
The former president’s family will make a statement later on Wednesday, members of his political party told reporters.
