Haitian Rebel Leader Appears for Trial

[mom cat]

Haitian Rebel Leader Appears for Trial


By AMY BRACKEN
Associated Press Writer

August 16, 2004, 5:32 PM EDT


PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti -- Jury selection began Monday for a Haitian paramilitary leader convicted in absentia of killing a businessman and ordering a massacre in the early 1990s but is facing the charges again after returning to lead a revolt against President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

Louis-Jodel Chamblain was a co-leader of the paramilitary Front for the Advancement and Progress of the Haitian People, a group that was blamed for the killings of some 3,000 people from 1991 to 1994 during the regime that followed Aristide's first ouster in 1991.

When U.S. troops came to the country in 1994 to restore Aristide, Chamblain fled to the neighboring Dominican Republic. In 1995, he was convicted in absentia and given two life sentences for his alleged role in the 1993 assassination of Aristide financier Antoine Izmery and the 1994 slaughter of dozens of Aristide supporters in the northern city of Gonaives.

He returned to help lead the rebellion this year that ousted Aristide for a second time and sent him into exile. Haitian law provides that people judged in their absence may have a new trial if they return.

Human rights groups have criticized Haiti's U.S.-backed interim government for forming alliances with people like Chamblain while it arrests Aristide officials and supporters.

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/world/wire/sns-ap-haiti-rebel-trial,0,5588318.story?coll=sns-ap-world-headlines

[lostnfound]

1. Acquitted at midnight, according to Flashpoints last night.

He apparently was assured that this would be the case prior to showing up. A total sham.

Meanwhile, a Lavalas leader and his 10 year old brother were burned to death, and an activist died, hung in a tree, sans tongue.

[struggle4progress]

2. Sham Justice in Haiti

Friday, August 20, 2004; Page A18

HAITI'S CARETAKER government, installed with U.S. backing after the country's first elected president in almost 200 years, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, was toppled in a bloody insurrection this year, has uttered all the right words about establishing the rule of law, laying the groundwork for honest elections and achieving national reconciliation. From the outset, though, the government's actions have cast doubt on its words. In a farcical trial this week, a death squad leader who terrorized Aristide supporters in the early 1990s was acquitted of the 1993 murder of a prominent pro-democracy activist and businessman, Antoine Izmery.

The trial of Louis Jodel Chamblain was scheduled just a few days before it began, giving lawyers little chance to prepare and, crucially, leaving witnesses almost no time to be notified; of eight summoned by the prosecution, apparently just one showed up, and he said he knew nothing about the case. Most of the one-day proceeding took place after midnight. A verdict was reached around dawn.
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A17272-2004Aug19.html


Kangaroo Courts in the New Haiti?: Death Squad Leader Jodel Chamblain Acquitted of Murder Charge
Thursday, August 19th, 2004

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JUAN GONZALEZ: We are joined by Brian Concannon, who works for the International Lawyer's office in Haiti where he spent the last several years prosecuting crimes committed during the 1991, 1994 coup. Welcome to Democracy Now!, Brian.
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BRIAN CONCANNON: It was a no-show trial. What they did. There was plenty of evidence, they did not produce it. There were plenty of witnesses. They did not call those witnesses in. Some of the witnesses they did call were dead. Several others were out of the country or didn't really know anything. The investigating judge didn't do what he was supposed to do under the law. The prosecutors did not prosecute. It was clear that the intent from the beginning was that this be-- that there be no risk of conviction. In fact, the justice minister hedged his bets by saying even if there was a conviction he might pardon Chamblain, but he also said that when Chamblain turned himself in back in April, the justice minister said he had nothing to hide, which was a clear sign to the prosecutor which the prosecutor obviously got.
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http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/08/19/1355204


Chamblain and Joanis Overnight Trials an Insult to Justice
Published Wednesday, August 18th, 2004

The Haitian interim government failed to ensure justice and to demonstrate its willingness to tackle impunity effectively, said Amnesty International as Louis Jodel Chamblain and Jackson Joanis have been acquitted of the 1993 murder of Antoine Izmery, a pro-democracy activist and business man. The trial has been hastily set up in a special session of the criminal court in Port-au-Prince and the verdict was reached within a day of the hearing.

“There are a number of reasons why we can label this re-trial as a mockery: it was set up without proper instruction and investigation from the Prosecutor (Commissaire du Gouvernement), most of the evidence used in the first trial has been destroyed or is missing since the last armed rebellion, false witnesses have been called to testify and no serious efforts have been made to find the genuine witnesses and ensure their security. Said Amnesty International “Key witnesses are in hiding for fear for their lives. Also no effort has been made to arrest the other twelve paramilitary members prosecuted in absentia in the first Izmery trial in 1995.”

“After all the efforts made previously on their original trials, it is an insult to the victims to have undergone such a high-profile re-trial in one day,” Amnesty International said, “this is a very sad record in the history of Haiti.”

Amnesty International has consistently demanded justice for unpunished crimes committed by former Haitian military and paramilitary members and campaigned for the re-trial of Louis Jodel Chamblain. However, the organization expressed serious concerns about the weakness of the Haitian judicial system and its willingness to vigorously prosecute perpetrators of serious human rights violations and meet international standards of fairness guaranteeing the rights of the victims as well as the defendants.
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http://www.world-crisis.com/news/632_0_1_0_M/