New Delhi, June 23 -- Francisco Guterres, a former president of East Timor and a leading figure in the country's independence movement, has died. He was 71.

Guterres, widely known by his nom de guerre "Lu Olo," died on Sunday at Prince Court Medical Centre in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, where he had been in intensive care, his family said on the late president's official Facebook account. The cause of death was not immediately disclosed.

Guterres served as president from 2017 to 2022, capping decades of involvement in the political and armed struggle that led to independence for Southeast Asia's youngest nation in 2002.

"Throughout his life, he remained committed to the freedom of his people and the building of a democratic nation," Malays...