Bouterse sentenced to 20 years in prison on appeal

Last Updated on Friday, 22 December 2023, 11:56 by Denis Chabrol

By Ivan Cairo

Paramaribo – Desi Bouterse, former coup leader, ex-commander and ex-president, was Wednesday sentenced for the third time to a twenty-year prison term for his part in the controversial multiple murder of fifteen men on December 8, 1982.

No detention has been ordered against him. After being convicted twice by the Court Martial – in November 2019 and August 2021 – the final verdict was now pronounced by the Court of Justice, after Bouterse, who was the main suspect in this drawn-out criminal trial, had appealed. After the sentence was read, there was a sigh of relief among the relatives of the victims who attended the hearing.

As many expected, Bouterse did not show up today. During a mass meeting of his party, NDP, last Saturday, fellow party members and sympathizers appealed to him to stay at home and not to go to the hearing. The three-member chamber of the court, chaired by subdistrict judge Dinesh Sewrattan, also ruled in the case against co-suspects Ernst Geffery, Benny Brondenstein, Stephanus Dendoe and Iwan Dijksteel. These suspects, all ex-army officers, were sentenced to 15 years in prison. They received a lower sentence than ex-commander Bouterse because they were subordinates of the then army leader at the time the criminal offenses were committed.

According to the indictment, Bouterse and the co-suspects, allegedly conspired in the preparation and execution of the operation on December 7 and 8, 1982, in which sixteen critics of the then military regime led by Bouterse were arrested and transferred to Fort Zeelandia where the headquarters of the then army leadership was located. Only the now late union leader Fred Derby, who was also arrested, survived the carnage wrought at the fort. Today’s ruling marks an end to the criminal trial in Suriname that lasted sixteen years.

Bouterse had visited Guyana several times.