MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Ex-leader of Surinam sentenced to twenty years in jail

The 78-year-old Bouterse led the country through the 1980s as head of a military government, then returned to office in 2010 and was re-elected five years later

An ex-elected president (and dictator?) of the former Dutch colony of Suriname, Desi Bouterse has been confirmed he must spend twenty years in prison for the execution of fifteen political opponents in December 1982, according to the ruling of a three-judge appeal panel.

The 78-year-old Bouterse led the country through the 1980s as head of a military government, then returned to office in 2010 and was re-elected five years later. His son, Dino Bouterse, whose father was preparing to succeed him is also in prison, but in the United States.

This could mean the end of the Bouterse family influence, with strong connections among the military and the political system of Suriname..

“Those who sought justice had angelic patience,” court president Dinesh Sewratan said as he read the judgment. After the appeal decision, the ex-president's only remaining option is to ask for a pardon.

Bouterse seized power in a 1980 coup against Suriname's first prime minister, Henck Arron, just five years after the South American country, wedged between Guyana and French Guyana, gained independence from the Netherlands.

The court ruled in 2019 that Bouterse oversaw a December 1982 operation in which soldiers abducted 16 leading government critics — including lawyers, journalists, union leaders, soldiers and university professors — from their homes. Fifteen were murdered in a colonial fortress in the capital, Paramaribo. One union leader survived and testified against Bouterse.

However, Bouterse has denied involvement in the 1982 killings, saying the victims were held for plotting a counter-coup with the help of the CIA and were shot while trying to escape.

His son Dino meantime since 2013 has been sentenced to 16 years in prison, after pleading guilty to US charges that he tried to offer a home base to the Lebanese paramilitary group Hezbollah.

Dino Bouterse, 42, who worked in a Suriname counterterrorist unit, was sentenced by US district judge Shira Scheindlin in Manhattan. Bouterse had also admitted to drug trafficking and firearms charges.

US prosecutors accused Dino Bouterse of inviting people he thought were from Hezbollah to establish a base in his home country, north of Brazil, in exchange for US$ 2m that was ultimately not paid.

Dino Bouterse was arrested by Panamanian authorities after a sting in which he allegedly talked about his activities with confidential informants from the US Drug Enforcement Administration.

However the ex president ruling comes at a time when tensions are already high in Surinam, which has seen protests against soaring inflation and austerity measures. Bouterse remains very popular, especially among the country's poor and working class. In July, he said he would respect the verdict.

“Whatever it will be, I'm ready for it,” he said, adding he was “convinced that the other judge, history, will acquit me 100%.”

In 1999, a court in the Netherlands, Suriname's former colonial ruler, sentenced Bouterse in absentia to 11 years in prison for cocaine smuggling, another charge he denies.

Surinam since 2015 is an associate member state of Mercosur. At the time Brazil's Lula da Silva and Argentina's Kirchners were predominant and they were glad with the incorporation to the block of a country ruled by a 'progressive' leader.