U.N. accuses Haiti of massive illegal detentions
06 Apr 2006 22:41:52 GMT
Source: Reuters
By Joseph Guyler Delva
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, April 6 (Reuters) - The head of the U.N.
mission's human rights unit in Haiti accused judicial officials and
the U.S.-backed interim government on Thursday of illegally detaining
most of the 4,000 people behind bars in the country.
Thierry Fagart said most of the inmates had not been formally charged
or put on trial by the interim authorities who replaced ousted
President Jean-Bertrand Aristide two years ago.
"Most of the people in jail in Haiti are being detained illegally.
The legal procedures have been systematically violated," said Fagart.
Fagart said many of the detainees, particularly high-profile
prisoners, should be released immediately while investigations and
other judicial proceedings continue.
He said the decision by authorities in the impoverished Caribbean
country to hold people "preventively" behind bars, for months or
years, often without charges filed against them, was unacceptable.
"There are people who have in preventive detention more time than
provided by the law if they were sentenced," Fagart told Reuters.
He urged the interim authorities, who are due to hand power to
President-elect Rene Preval next month, to comply with the principle
of presumption of innocence.
"If they are found not guilty when tried, they will have spent all
that time in jail for no reason," he said.
Hundreds of those jailed are widely believed to have been arrested
for political reasons, although the interim government has repeatedly
denied that.
Among them are former Prime Minister Yvon Neptune and former Interior
Minister Jocelerme Privert, both of whom served under Aristide.
Haiti's prisons are overflowing and cannot accommodate new inmates.
At the national penitentiary where more than 2,000 people are jailed,
only about 4 percent have been sentenced.
Officials at the prison, built to house only a few hundred, have
refused over the past week to take in new suspects sent by the
Haitian police and other judicial authorities because of lack of space.
Virtually all the prisoners were arrested over the past two years
under the interim government because Haiti's prisons were emptied
during or right after the armed rebellion that toppled Aristide in
February 2004.
Privert marked his second anniversary in jail on Thursday. He was
arrested on April 6, 2004, on accusations he and Neptune masterminded
what their political foes have called a massacre two months earlier
in La Scierie, a village near the northern town of St-Marc. Both men
have denied the accusations.
Preval, who won an election in February, has suggested he could issue
a pardon to political prisoners. Many of them say they have done
nothing they need to be pardoned for.
06 Apr 2006 22:41:52 GMT
Source: Reuters
By Joseph Guyler Delva
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, April 6 (Reuters) - The head of the U.N.
mission's human rights unit in Haiti accused judicial officials and
the U.S.-backed interim government on Thursday of illegally detaining
most of the 4,000 people behind bars in the country.
Thierry Fagart said most of the inmates had not been formally charged
or put on trial by the interim authorities who replaced ousted
President Jean-Bertrand Aristide two years ago.
"Most of the people in jail in Haiti are being detained illegally.
The legal procedures have been systematically violated," said Fagart.
Fagart said many of the detainees, particularly high-profile
prisoners, should be released immediately while investigations and
other judicial proceedings continue.
He said the decision by authorities in the impoverished Caribbean
country to hold people "preventively" behind bars, for months or
years, often without charges filed against them, was unacceptable.
"There are people who have in preventive detention more time than
provided by the law if they were sentenced," Fagart told Reuters.
He urged the interim authorities, who are due to hand power to
President-elect Rene Preval next month, to comply with the principle
of presumption of innocence.
"If they are found not guilty when tried, they will have spent all
that time in jail for no reason," he said.
Hundreds of those jailed are widely believed to have been arrested
for political reasons, although the interim government has repeatedly
denied that.
Among them are former Prime Minister Yvon Neptune and former Interior
Minister Jocelerme Privert, both of whom served under Aristide.
Haiti's prisons are overflowing and cannot accommodate new inmates.
At the national penitentiary where more than 2,000 people are jailed,
only about 4 percent have been sentenced.
Officials at the prison, built to house only a few hundred, have
refused over the past week to take in new suspects sent by the
Haitian police and other judicial authorities because of lack of space.
Virtually all the prisoners were arrested over the past two years
under the interim government because Haiti's prisons were emptied
during or right after the armed rebellion that toppled Aristide in
February 2004.
Privert marked his second anniversary in jail on Thursday. He was
arrested on April 6, 2004, on accusations he and Neptune masterminded
what their political foes have called a massacre two months earlier
in La Scierie, a village near the northern town of St-Marc. Both men
have denied the accusations.
Preval, who won an election in February, has suggested he could issue
a pardon to political prisoners. Many of them say they have done
nothing they need to be pardoned for.