#3684: JEAN CLAUDE DUVALIER'S FATHER-IN-LAW IS RELEASED (fwd)

[Robert Corbett <bcorbett@netcom.com>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

Port-au-Prince, May 17 (EFE) --  Former Haitian dictator Jean Claude
Duvalier's father-in-law, Ernest Bennett, was released from prison on
Wednesday after serving two years for illicit enrichment.
   Bennett, who was sentenced in 1998, wrote several texts rejecting the
charges brought against him and demanded his release while in jail.
   He always said that his trial had been politically driven because he
never held any government post.
   Ernest Bennett is the father of Michelle Bennett, who married Duvalier
in 1980 and was famous for her extravagant taste.
   Another man close to Duvalier, decorator Jean Sambour, who was jailed
upon his arrival in Haiti in February, was also released on Wednesday.
   Sambour appeared on a list of people close to Duvalier after the
dictator's overthrow in 1986. He was considered one of Duvalier's front
men.