UPDATE 1-Suriname ex-President Desi Bouterse dead at 79, foreign minister says

Suriname's fugitive ex-President Desi Bouterse has died aged 79, the country's government said on Wednesday, almost a year after he fled authorities to avoid jail following his conviction over the murder of 15 political activists in 1982. "The government has been informed through the family and its own investigations of the passing of Mr. D.

Suriname's fugitive ex-President Desi Bouterse has died aged 79, the country's government said on Wednesday, almost a year after he fled authorities to avoid jail following his conviction over the murder of 15 political activists in 1982. "The government has been informed through the family and its own investigations of the passing of Mr. D. Bouterse, ex-President of the Republic of Suriname," Foreign Minister Albert Ramdin told Reuters.

Bouterse dominated politics in the tiny South American country for decades, leading a coup in 1980 and finally leaving office in 2020. In 2019 he and six others were convicted for their role in the 1982 murders of 15 leading government critics - including lawyers, journalists, union leaders, soldiers and university professors - for which Bouterse received a 20-year prison sentence.

Following years of legal back and forth, Bouterse was ordered to report to prison in January but he did not show up on the appointed date.

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