U.N. human rights official deplores number of prisoners detained without trial in Haiti29 novembre 2005

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti_A U.N. human rights official criticized Haiti’s justice system for jailing hundreds of people without charge, including an activist priest he compared to a political prisoner.

Louis Joinet’s comments Monday marked one of the strongest recent condemnations of Haiti’s inefficient and corruption-prone justice system from a member of the international community.

The exact size of Haiti’s prison population isn’t known, but the overcrowded National Penitentiary in the capital of Port-au-Prince holds more than 1,700 inmates, only a few dozen of who have been charged.

"If the Haitian judiciary does not have the means to try the people it detains, it should be compelled to release them," Joinet, the Haiti expert of the U.N. Commission on Human Rights, told The Associated Press.

Joinet was speaking following a two-week visit to assess human rights conditions in the impoverished Caribbean nation of 8 million. He is scheduled to present his findings to the United Nations in April.

Joinet also condemned the jailing of several allies of ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, including former Prime Minister Yvon Neptune and popular Roman Catholic priest, the Rev. Gerard Jean-Juste.

Neptune has spent more than a year in jail on accusations of masterminding the killings of political opponents. Jean-Juste has been jailed since July for alleged involvement in the abduction and slaying of a well-known Haitian journalist. Both men deny the charges.

Joinet said the charges against Jean-Juste "seem quite weak" and questioned the motives for detaining the priest, who had been seen by some as a potential presidential contender in upcoming elections.

"When a prisoner remains in jail longer than what the law allows, he becomes a political prisoner. This seems to be the case for Jean-Juste," said Joinet."

Haitian officials weren’t immediately available for comment.

Joinet’s visit comes as Haiti’s interim government and the United Nations struggle to prepare for national elections scheduled for early next year, the first polls since Aristide fled into exile amid a February 2004 revolt.

The elections have been pushed back several times because of logistical snags and violence blamed on street gangs.