Update: Sorry we missed last week�s alert– we had a busy travel sched­ule. Our trav­els did bear some fruit: on May 22, Judge Abra­ham Gerges of New York threw out the favor­able plea agree­ment for for­mer Hait­ian death squad leader Emmanuel Con­stant and rein­stated all charges against him. The judge based his deci­sion on evi­dence sub­mit­ted by The Cen­ter for Con­sti­tu­tional Rights, The Cen­ter for Jus­tice & Account­abil­ity, and the Bureau des Avo­cats Inter­na­tionaux on Constant�s human rights vio­la­tions in Haiti. Judge Gerges called the Depart­ment of Home­land Security�s request for Con­stant to be sen­tenced to time-served (10 months) �a trav­esty.� �The judge noted that he had �received hun­dreds of faxes from var­i­ous indi­vid­u­als.� So mesi anpil (thanks a lot) to every­one who pitched in on that! To read the deci­sion, press releases and news arti­cles, see www.HaitiJustice.org.

Fr. Ger­ard Jean-Juste�s legal strug­gle con­tin­ues. Fr. Gerry is still in Florida, under­go­ing treat­ment for leukemia. The unfounded mur­der and kid­nap­ping charges against him were dis­missed 18 months ago, when the pros­e­cu­tors could pro­duce no evi­dence against him. But his pros­e­cu­tion on gun-possession charges con­tin­ues, even though the pros­e­cu­tor has con­ceded that they too are unfounded. The charges are based on hand­guns pro­vided to Fr. Jean-Juste�s secu­rity detail by the Hait­ian gov­ern­ment. There are no alle­ga­tions that Fr. Jean-Juste him­self ever pos­sessed the guns, that their pos­ses­sion by any­one was ille­gal, or that the guns were ever used for a crime. The guns and the secu­rity detail were paid for by the Hait­ian gov­ern­ment (Fr. Jean-Juste was a gov­ern­ment con­sul­tant at the time), and the guns have been returned to the government.

On Mon­day May 28, the Court of Appeals refused to dis­miss the weapons charges with­out hear­ing from Fr. Jean-Juste, who is under doctor�s orders not to travel to Haiti. As Fr. Jean-Juste�s lawyer, Mario Joseph, reminded the court, the bur­den of proof is on the gov­ern­ment. If the pros­e­cu­tion can­not present any evi­dence of wrong­do­ing after three years of pur­suit, the court is oblig­ated to dis­miss the case.� Gov­ern­ment pros­e­cu­tor Patrick Pierre Fils agreed and asked the court to dis­miss the charges. But the court insisted that it needed to hear Fr. Jean-Juste, and set a hear­ing for November.

Com­ing Attrac­tions: Seed­ing Hope in Haiti, a Pax Christi speak­ing tour will visit the U.S. from June 16-July 23.

This week�s alert: Over the past year, we�ve all invested a lot of energy to free promi­nent polit­i­cal pris­on­ers from Haiti�s jails, which has helped end the unjust and inhu­man impris­on­ment for over a dozen men and women.� But we can­not for­get that the major­ity of polit­i­cal pris­on­ers in Haiti are poor, and unknown out­side of their neigh­bor­hood. Their cases are rarely dis­cussed by human rights groups or in the media, but their impris­on­ment is just as unjust. And over 100 of them are still there.

Almost a year ago, last June 13, our alert called for sup­port for threegrass­roots activists from rural Petit-Goave, Excel­lent Lavi­o­let, Aline Joseph and Raoul Orph�, all arrested in con­nec­tion with a 2002 killing of mem­bers of an anti-Lavalas group. We protested their impris­on­ment because 1) the arrests were ille­gal– nor­mal pro­ce­dures under Hait­ian law were ignored; 2) the war­rants in the case were issued three years after the crime (and for Lavi­o­let and Joseph, after the arrests), but shortly after Mr. Lavi­o­let gave a radio inter­view crit­i­ciz­ing the judge in the case, Judge Alex Cl�danor for abuse of his judi­cial author­ity; and 3) the arrestees were active in pro-Lavalas orga­ni­za­tions, while Judge Cl�danor is a lead­ing mem­ber of an anti-Lavalas polit­i­cal group.

Five months later, on Novem­ber 8, 2006, the case had not moved for­ward, and judge Cl�danor had left the cour­t­house for a job with the UN with­out, accord­ing to the chief judge, leav­ing the case file. So we wrote to the Min­is­ter of Jus­tice, com­plain­ing about the ille­gal­i­ties and delays in the case. The judge was even­tu­ally replaced, in April 2007, and in March the case against Aline Joseph was dis­missed. But Excel­lent Lavi­o­let (461 days) and Raoul Orph� (421 days) remain in prison, still with­out for­mal charges. The judge has not even ruled on their request for pre-trial release, filed in August 2006.

Don�t let these two polit­i­cal pris­on­ers be for­got­ten. Please write again to Min­is­ter of Jus­tice, Ren� Magloire, urg­ing him to instruct his pros­e­cu­tor in Petit Goave to make every effort to end the unjust pros­e­cu­tion of Mr. Lavi­o­let and Mr. Orph�. A sam­ple let­ter is below, feel free to cus­tomize it. You may send yours directly to Me. Magloire 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 they are deliv­ered.
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Me. Ren� Magloire
Min­istre de la Jus­tice et de la S�curit� Publique
Minist�re de la Jus­tice
18 Avenue Charles Sum­ner
Port-au-Prince, Ha�ti
Re: Polit­i­cal Pris­on­ers Excel­lent Lavi­o­let and Raoul Orph�

Dear Mr. Minister:

I am writ­ing on behalf of two polit­i­cal activists from Petit-Goave, Excel­lent Lavi­o­let (arrested Feb­ru­ary 5, 2006) and Raoul Orph� (arrested on April 11, 2006). As you know, both were arrested ille­gally and impris­oned by Juge d�Instruction Alex Cl�danor. The arrests were made and war­rants issued three years after the alleged crime, but shortly after some of the accused had pub­licly crit­i­cized Judge Cl�danor for abuse of his judi­cial author­ity. Both have spent over 421 nights in prison with­out being for­mally charged with a crime.

I would like to thank you for your efforts to install a new Juge d�Instruction in Petit– Goave.� But two months after the new judge�sinstallation, there has been no progress for Mr. Lavi­o­let or Mr. Orph�. Their August 2006 request for pre-trial release has not even been decided.

I urge you to take every action to ensure that the vio­la­tion of the con­sti­tu­tional and human rights of Mr. Lavi­o­let and Mr. Orph� ends imme­di­ately. Please instruct your pros­e­cu­tor in Petit-Goave to rec­om­mend imme­di­ate pre-trial release for both men, and unless there is com­pelling evi­dence of their respon­si­bil­ity in the case file, to rec­om­mend dis­miss­ing the charges.

Thank you for your atten­tion to this mat­ter.
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