PARAMARIBO, Suriname: Suriname’s ex-president Desi Bouterse, 78, must report this week to start serving a 20-year jail sentence for the murder of political opponents over 40 years ago, said the prosecutor’s office on Wednesday.
Bouterse and four others found guilty along with him must report to authorities on Friday, it said in a statement, without naming the prison where the former president will be kept. In December 2023, the South American country’s highest court upheld Bouterse’s 2019 conviction for the execution of 15 people including lawyers, journalists, businessmen and military personnel in December 1982, two years after he came to power following a coup.
Bouterse, a former strongman who led two coups and also served as the former Dutch colony’s elected president until 2020, remained free awaiting the outcome of his case.
In July 2023, Bouterse — who remains very popular, especially with the country’s poor and working classes — said he would respect the court decision. He was not in the court for the judgment in his appeal hearing, which closed 16 years of criminal proceedings.
READ ALSO: Gaza Death Toll Surpasses 23,357 as Israel Keeps Bombing Palestinian Territory
