Interpol: Bouterse on the wanted list – Norwegian Refugee Council

ANB news agency reported on Wednesday that the international criminal investigation agency Interpol has placed former Surinamese President Dessie Bouterse on its most wanted list. Bouterse was sentenced to twenty years in prison at the end of 2023 for the December murders in Paramaribo in 1982. Since then, the 78-year-old Bouterse has remained missing.

Interpol issued a so-called “Red Notice” against Bouterse. The service is therefore asking police agencies around the world to arrest the former army chief.

Surinamese police had already issued an arrest warrant for Bouterse two months ago. He was last seen in Suriname on January 9.

On December 20 last year, Bouterse was sentenced on appeal to twenty years in prison for his role in the December 1982 murders. Four suspects, including Bouterse's former bodyguard, were also sentenced to prison.

Three of them later reported that they had served their sentence, but the bodyguard, Ioan Dijksteel, had disappeared. Interpol also issued an arrest warrant against him.

During the December murders at Fort Zealandia in the Surinamese capital Paramaribo in 1982, fifteen opponents of the military regime led by then army chief Desi Bouterse were tortured and killed.

Although he has always denied his involvement, he apologized for the murders in 2007. Later president Bouterse committed a military coup in 1980, which led to growing resistance against him.

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