Suriname: Trial or Surinamese president Bouterse moves to colonial fort where 15 opponents slain in 1982

The long-delayed murder trial of the Surinamese president and other officials in the country's former military dictatorship moved Monday to the colonial fort in the capital where they are accused of executing 15 political opponents in 1982.

Judges walked through the capital's waterfront Fort Zeelandia with a witness who has testified that President Desi Bouterse, at the time a soldier and the de facto leader of the dictatorship, was present when the activists were lined up and shot after being detained for hours in an open-air cell once used to hold slaves.

Journalists and members of the public were not allowed into the fort as the judges conducted the hearing, the first outside of a court since the trial began in November 2007.

Bouterse, who was elected president in a parliamentary vote in July, was not required to attend and spent the morning at his office, several hundred meters (yards) away, accepting the diplomatic credentials of the country's new Cuban and French ambassadors.

For more: The Canadian Press: Trial or Surinamese president moves to colonial fort where 15 opponents slain in 1982