Haiti - Duvalier : The lawyers of "Baby Doc" rejects the accusations

20/01/2011 11:46:54

In a press conference yesterday Wednesday in front of the Karibe Hotel in Petion Ville, where lives the former President, Jean Claude Duvalier, his lawyers have been very clear; the convocation Tuesday of the former president is nothing more than political manipulation orchestrated by the government. No strong case was presented to them.

"All the procedure initiated by the government, because it's the government that is behind all this, is firstly of the intimidation and the pure arbitrary, because there is no legal justification for what has been done", said Me Reynold Georges, referring to the questioning of Jean Claude Duvalier at the public prosecutor's office.

On the wave of RFI Me Fritzo Canton, one of Duvalier's lawyers spoke on this matter "At the prosecutor's and instruction level, we found no evidence that could justify or even result to the prosecution of Mr. Duvalier in Haiti. Regarding the complaints that would likely be filed later, and well, such complaints are fell within the scope of the prescription there are over 25 years. If no complaint had been filed, it is not today that we will improvise any claim whatsoever by any person whatsoever. We did not say there was no resentment that had been caused when Mr. Duvalier was in power, but if there was resentment or grudges they had to express and translate them as complaints within agreed timeframes and prescribed by law. We are a country of law and we must respect the law so that democracy can triumph. I would not wish that we returned in the phase of the perversion of democracy, using justice as a tool of persecution"

The journalist Michele Montas regrets this rhetoric. "These people say anything. There is no prescription for crimes against humanity. Illegal arrest, prolonged detention and torture are crimes imprescriptible and there is nothing that Mr. Duvalier's lawyers can do, has she said. It is a fact of international law and Haiti joins a series of agreements that require it to respect that."

Without denying the right of the complaint of Ms. Montas and without pretending to have the legal knowledge to challenge the basis or legality, it nevertheless seems curious that we can include "illegal arrests and prolonged detentions" in a complaint for crime against humanity. If this is the case, it is time that someone decides to lodge such a complaint against the Government of Haiti because Haiti's prisons are full of our citizens held without trial and in prolonged "pretrial detention" for several years and these cases are nothing to do with previous governments.

The last report of the National Network for the Defence of Human Rights (RNDDH) indicates that a total of 5.601 inmates were identified on October 25, 2010, 1.384 are sentenced cons 4.217 in custody. It might be time to deal with what is happening now in Haiti as a priority...