Former Surinamese president Desi Bouterse (78) will hear the final verdict on December 20 about his role in the so-called December murders of 1982, which claimed the lives of fifteen men. The Surinamese Public Prosecution Service has this Thursday afternoon local time announced.
The Public Prosecution Service is demanding a twenty-year prison sentence against Bouterse and the immediate imprisonment of the former president. On December 20, the Court of Justice will also pass the final judgment against ex-soldiers Iwan Dijksteel, Stephanus Dendoe, Ernst Geffery and Benny Brondenstein. They have also been sentenced to twenty years in prison. All five men maintain their innocence.
The case against 78-year-old Bouterse, who was president of Suriname between 2010 and 2020, has been going on for sixteen years. The criminal trial started on November 30, 2007 and in 2019 he was sentenced to twenty years in prison. Bouterse then filed a complaint with the court-martial, but in 2021 another twenty-year prison sentence was demanded by the Surinamese Public Prosecution Service. During the appeal in January this year, that sentence was again demanded, and the Court will rule on December 20.
In December 1982, Desi Bouterse was commander of the National Army, after coming to power in Suriname through a coup two years earlier. On the night of December 7, fifteen prominent opponents of Bouterse were executed in Fort Zeelandia. Among them were journalists, lawyers, professors, soldiers, union leaders and entrepreneurs.
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