13438: Medard: In jail, ex-Haitian leader appears close to freedom (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: A M <famfriends@hotmail.com>

Posted on Thu, Oct. 24, 2002
The Miami Herald (online)
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/world/haiti/4354760.htm

In jail, ex-Haitian leader appears close to freedom
BY MARIKA LYNCH
mlynch@herald.com

Attorneys and family members of former Haitian President Prosper Avril
awaited his release from jail Wednesday, a day after an appellate court said
his arrest for alleged involvement in a 1990 slaying was illegal.

The ruling was the third one ordering Avril's release, but the former
military leader who governed Haiti for 18 months ending in March 1990 was
still imprisoned Wednesday evening in the capital's National Penitentiary.

''I am hopeful, but since there were all these attempts to keep him in jail,
all I can say is we are very worried now as to what might be next,'' the
former leader's son, Gregor Avril, said. ``I don't know if they will try
something else.''

A spokesman for the Haitian Justice Ministry said the government would
comment today on if and when Avril will be released.

Avril was chief of presidential security under dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier
until his ouster in 1986. Two years later, the army general seized control
of the country, leading until a popular uprising forced him into exile.

Avril was signing copies of his book in an upscale suburb last year when
armed men in sky masks whisked him away. The work, Haiti 1995-2001, The
Black Book on Insecurity, was highly critical of President Jean-Bertrand
Aristide's police forces. The book signing was Avril's second appearance in
public since returning from exile.

Police first arrested him on charges he plotted to overthrow Aristide. Then
in April, an appeals court sided with an earlier court ruling that his
arrest was arbitrary and illegal because the initial warrant had expired.

Moments after he was released last spring, Avril was arrested again -- this
time for his role in the killings of a dozen farm workers about 50 miles
northwest of Port-au-Prince. The slayings took place three days after Avril
was ousted, though prosecutors said they believed he had ordered the
killings. Avril has said he is innocent.



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