15679: This Week in Haiti 21:10 5/21/2003 (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

"This Week in Haiti" is the English section of HAITI PROGRES
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                           HAITI PROGRES
              "Le journal qui offre une alternative"

                      * THIS WEEK IN HAITI *

                      May 21 - 27, 2003
                         Vol. 21, No. 10

Shoddy indictment?
DOMINIQUE/LOUISSAINT MURDER TRIAL POSTPONED AGAIN

An appeals court has postponed for the second time the trial of six men
accused of involvement in the assassination of Radio Haiti director Jean
Dominique and the station's guardian Jean-Claude Louissaint (see Haïti
Progrès, Vol. 18, No. 3, 4/5/2000). A new trial date has not been announced.

The six men were accused in a 33-page indictment handed down on Mar. 21.
Michelle Montas, Dominique's widow, called the indictment flawed and
incomplete. "I find it extremely strange they came up with only the people
who actually were involved in the event itself," she said at the time. "To
me those aren't the real assassins."  She said she wants to know the
"intellectual authors" who planned the crime.

During a hearing on May 12 at the Palace of Justice in Port-au-Prince,
Judges Jean Bien-Aimé, Franck Dorcely, and Lucien Dagobert heard arguments
from lawyers of the accused. "This case was prepared over the course of
three years by several different investigating judges since Apr. 3, 2000,"
the date of the murders, said Judge Bien-Aimé. "We are going to study
whether the indictment is good. If it's good, we'll keep it. If it is not,
we'll have them redo it."

Reynold Georges, the lawyer of two of the accused - Dymsley Millien (alias
Ti Lou) and Jean Daniel Jeudi (alias Jimmy) - argued that his clients were
fall-guys for higher-ups. "Judge Bernard Sainvil said in his investigation
that he spoke to [Senator] Dany Toussaint who said that the person who
killed Jean Dominique could not be judged in a common law court," Georges
said. "That means that the person has a high government post [and immunity
from prosecution]. They can't come take some indigents and put them in
prison for life."

Georges, who is also leader of the ultra-right political party ALLAH,
charged that government officials arrested Philippe Mackington and made him
"denounce a lot of other young indigents." He said that "the real assassin
continues to walk the streets."

Robert Augustin, the Dominique family's lawyer, also criticized the
indictment in the same vein as Montas. He charged that important information
discovered by earlier prosecutors was not included in the final document. "I
ask that the indictment be redone," he said.

Augustin threatened to take the case to the Supreme Court if the Appeals
Court decided to keep the indictment "which has so many shortcomings." He
also demanded that all those who were implicated in the slayings be charged.

During the hearing, Mackington again accused former prosecutor Wilfrid
Présent and former director of the Judges' School Willy Lubin of pressuring
him to accuse Dany Toussaint in the case. Mackington declared that they had
asked him "to accuse a certain Dany Toussaint and other people as well" of
having sent him to kill Dominique. Mackington claims to have no connection
to the murders and to have resisted the pressure to finger Toussaint. "I
would rather have a good conscience," he said. "I would prefer to die."

Many observers attended the hearing including the representatives of human
rights groups, members fo the Association of Haitian Journalists (AJH), and
several opposition leaders.

Some sectors of the press along with the Inter-American Commission on Human
Rights, an arm of the Organization of American States, have focused almost
exclusively on the public hostility which flared between Dominique and
Toussaint about six months before the murders. Many who have not even seen
the indictment already presume Toussaint to be guilty. However, Dominique
was investigating and denouncing several other scandals involving powerful
members of Haiti's ruthless bourgeoisie in the weeks and days before his
murder.

Among them was the case of poisoned medicine - Afebril-Valodon - which
killed many Haitian children and was prepared by the laboratory of the
powerful Boulos family. Dominique also was speaking out against corruption
in the distribution of electoral cards and monkey-business with election
observers, for which he sharply criticized U.S. government agencies and
Léopold Berlanger, director of rival station Vision 2000, an election
"overseer," and long-time Washington ally. There was also Dominique's
investigation of the massacre in Piatre, where he denounced Georgemain
Prophète, a big landowner with ties to former Tonton Macoutes, the feared
corps of the Duvalier dictatorships.

All during this time, the station of Macoute leader Serge Beaulieu, Radio
Liberté, was leveling insults and veiled threats against Dominique, as it
had for years.

Montas is presently living in the U.S. and has temporarily closed Radio
Haiti on the urging of her staff, who told her that they did not feel safe
gathering news in the field.

All articles copyrighted Haïti Progrès, Inc. REPRINTS ENCOURAGED.
Please credit Haïti Progrès.

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