a1580: BBC: Haiti: President renews mandate of examining judge in Dominique murder case (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Robert Benodin <r.benodin@worldnet.att.net>

Haiti: President renews mandate of examining judge in Dominique murder case
BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; Apr 4, 2002


The presidency announced last night the renewal of Examining Judge Claudy
Gassant's mandate. This decision was made by the head of state. Jacques
Maurice of the presidential press service answers the questions of Louis
Mary Achilles.
[Maurice - recording, in Creole] It is not just today that the president has
taken new measures. This decision was made on 1 April. The president has
renewed the mandate of three judges. He renewed the mandate of lawyer
Joceline Pierre who is now examining judge at the court of first instance in
Port-au-Prince. He renewed the mandate of lawyer Eddy Darant as examining
judge, also at the court of first instance in Port-au-Prince. He also
renewed the mandate of lawyer Claudy Gassant as examining judge at the court
of first instance in Port-au-Prince. All that was done on 1 April.
[Achilles] So, does that mean that Judge Gassant will still be in charge of
the Jean Dominique case [Jean Leopold Dominique, the owner and general
manager of Radio Haiti Inter, and Jean-Claude Louissaint, the caretaker of
the radio station, were murdered on 3 April 2000]?
[Maurice] Certainly. We must say that the case was not removed from his
care. The case was still there while waiting for the decision whether to
renew or not to renew his mandate. So, once his mandate has been renewed he
is entitled to all the cases that were entrusted to his care.
[Achilles] In other words, you basically met the demands of human rights
groups?
[Maurice] Listen, it is not a matter of responding to the demands of human
rights groups. The thing is that the president was waiting for a report. The
president has wanted to rule on the issue. He had said so before. He wanted
to give a verdict on whether or not to renew Judge Gassant's mandate. That
is a presidential prerogative. He has received the report and it is
favourable.
In the first Council of Ministers meeting that took place under the
Aristide-Neptune government, the president then formally asked the justice
minister to speed up the dossier regarding the report he was to receive
about the judges whose mandates had expired. Lawyer Brown Jean-Baptiste then
promised to make haste to obtain that report. The report was indeed
submitted to the president, who in turn analysed it and decided to renew the
mandate of those judges.
Source: Radio Metropole, Port-au-Prince, in French 1145 gmt 3 Apr 02
/BBC Monitoring/ © BBC.