Update: An Unbro­ken Agony (Haiti: From Rev­o­lu­tion to the Kid­nap­ping of a Pres­i­dent)Flash­points (click hereQ & A pro­gram this Sun­day, at 8 and 11 PM (also avail­able by pod­cast from the Q & A archives).

Upcom­ing Events: The Jubilee USA Net­workclick here, or con­tact Brian Swarts, brian@jubileeusa.org.

announcedBureau des Avo­cats Inter­na­tionaux has pre­sented Me.Gassant with a file doc­u­ment­ing one hun­dred cases of polit­i­cal pris­on­ers who have been held for as long as three years with­out any legal basis. Mario has asked us to back him up by writ­ing the Pros­e­cu­tor and urg­ing him to release the polit­i­cal pris­on­ers as part of this initiative.

Please help Mario out and take advan­tage of this oppor­tu­nity by writ­ing to Me. Gasssant. A sam­ple let­ter is below; feel free to cus­tomize it to inte­grate your per­sonal expe­ri­ence and inter­ests. You may send the let­ter directly to Me. Gas­sant by reg­u­lar mail, or to us by fax: (206) 350‑7986 (a U.S. num­ber) or email: avokahaiti@aol.com, and we will ensure that it is delivered.

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Me. Claudy Gas­sant
Com­mis­saire du Gou­verne­ment


18 Avenue Charles Sum­ner

Re: Release of Polit­i­cal Pris­on­ers Held in Pro­longed Detention

Dear Pros­e­cu­tor Gassant:

I am writ­ing to thank you for your announced plan to fight exces­sive pre-trial deten­tion by releas­ing over one hun­dred pris­on­ers, and to encour­age you to include polit­i­cal pris­on­ers among the peo­ple that you release.

As you know, there are more than 100 pris­on­ers in the National Pen­i­ten­tiary who were polit­i­cally active before their arrest and have no legal jus­ti­fi­ca­tion for their deten­tion in their case file. All of these peo­ple are being held in con­tra­ven­tion of their rights under Hait­ian and inter­na­tional law; many have been unjustly impris­oned for three years or more already.

Thank you in advance for your con­sid­er­a­tion of this request.

Sin­cerely,

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