PARAMARIBO, Suriname, CMC – Former president Desi Bouterse died last week due to liver disease, the Public Prosecution Service (OM) has said. The OM said that the report of the autopsy had been received from the pathologist last weekend.
“The report shows that the probable date of death was Monday or Tuesday. The cause of death was determined to be: a complication of liver failure in severe liver fibrosis, caused by chronic alcohol use,” according to the Office of the Attorney-General.
Desi Bouterse
The local newspaper de Ware Tijd reported, based on its investigation, that Bouterse, who had been on the run since he was convicted and sentenced to 20 years in jail last December, died on Monday, December 23, at around 11.30 pm (local time).
People who went to collect the body from his hiding place a day after his passing arrived with the remains in Paramaribo early Wednesday morning.
The Public Prosecution Service said that the body would be handed over to the relatives and that the police investigation into the circumstances of how the body was transported from the as-yet-unknown hiding place to Bouterse’s home in Leonsberg will continue.
The family and the National Democratic Party (NDP) that Bouterse founded hope that the funeral will take place by January 4 next year.
Last weekend, Foreign Affairs Minister Albert Ramdin said Bouterse will not receive a state funeral.
In addition, the leadership of the National Army and the Ministry of Defense have indicated that although Bouterse was also the commander of the army, it would be inappropriate to bury him with state or military honors because the Military Court sentenced him to prison for severe criminal offenses.
Ramdin said because it will not be a state funeral, no foreign heads of state will be invited, adding that the government in the Dutch-speaking Caribbean Community (CARICOM) country has not yet received any requests from foreign heads of government who would like to attend the funeral.
On 25 February 1980, Bouterse, as sergeant and chairman of the newly established military union, led a coup and deposed Prime Minister Henck Arron’s democratically elected government. The military then established the National Military Council (NMR), appointed a new government, and suspended the Constitution and parliament. The policy under Bouterse’s regime led to what would later be known as the December murders.
Bouterse was sentenced to 20 years in prison by the Court of Justice in December 2023 on appeal for involvement in the murder of 15 people, including journalists, lawyers, and human rights activists, on December 8, 1982.
The court ruled that although no evidence was provided that Bouterse shot one or more of the victims himself, there was evidence that he gave the order to do so and was in control of the massacre from the beginning to the end.
Following his conviction, Bouterse had been on the run ever since, along with his bodyguard, Iwan Dijksteel, who had also been sentenced to 15 years in jail.
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