18567: Dilize: Pierre Jean - Andre Apaid is a Haitian citizen (fwd) (????) (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Dilize@aol.com

Is Mr. Andre Apaid, Jr. a Haitian citizen or not? Just because the wealthiest
individual in Haiti owned, at some point, perhaps under military rule or
dictatorship, a Haitian passport does not mean he was entitled to it in accordance
with Haitian law, or, in accordance with the 1987 Haitian Constitution. Did
Mr. Apaid ever renounce his U.S. citizenship? Haiti does not recognize dual
citizenship. Just to give an example: If Mr. Apaid currently can be found,
through old passport and entrance/departure records to own or have used a U.S. or
any other nationality/citizenship which he has traveled under or used as I.D. at
any point in time after his ownership of a Haitian passport, he is not and
cannot be a Haitian citizen.

Mr. JeanPierre <pierrejean2004@yahoo.com> writes on the Corbett List:
"When a Haitian citizen has a child who is born

overseas, he/she can declare that child to Haitian

authorities in Haiti, which confers Haitian

citizenship to the child. This is what many Haitians

who went to Africa in the late 50s, early 60s did for

their kids born in Congo-Kinshasa, Cameroon, Gabon,

etc. As the letter from Apaid's attorney suggests,

this is the procedure (albeit a late one) that Apaid's

father followed in order for his US-born son to gain

Haitian citizenship. As far as I know, there is

nothing illegal about that.......


Again, please check with legal experts well-versed

into Haitian law on this subject."

That "procedure" may have existed before 1987 for those who could afford to
buy their entitlements in Haiti but that doesn't mean it was a legally
recognized (though I am checking on this before I can actually say it was legal or not
in accordance with the rule of law, not force or power or connections.) But
if said outlined "procedure" ever existed and was ever legal, it certainly is
not now.

In particularly, how old exactly was Mr. Apaid when his father is purported
to have "followed that procedure" Mr. JeanPierre?  Where both his parents born
in Haiti and/or where legally Haitian citizens at the time of said "followed
procedure."? If Mr. Apaid was not a minor, he himself would have had to declare
his citizenship, not his parents. These are some of the questioned Mr. Apaid
should openly answer in order for the Haitian public he wants to rule to be
satisfied that Mr. Andre Apaid, Jr. who is currently claiming some legitimacy as
a candidate for "leader" in Haiti, has, in fact, abided by the rule of
Haitian law on this citizenship subject.


I am a lawyer Mr. Pierre Jean, very familiar with the 1987 Constitution. I am
a Haitian-American lawyer with the distinction of having worked with numerous
Haitian and Haitian-American lawyers to put together a judicial reform agenda
for Haiti back in 1994-1995. I am well-versed with the 1987 Constitutional
provisions with regard to dual citizenship and how it defines Haitian
nationality. I am familiar with some of those lawmakers and advisors who actually help
write that 1987 Constitution and their intent on the question of what defines
"Haitian nationality."

Since you invited a legal expert "well-versed into Haitian law on this
subject" to comment Mr. Pierre Jean. I hereby opine, both base on my own knowledge
and upon the independent advise of a Haitian lawyer admitted in Haiti that: If
Mr. Apaid was born in Miami and if Mr. Apaid never officially and legally
renounced his U.S. citizenship, he is not Constitutionally recognized, in Haiti,
as a Haitian citizen.

Marguerite Laurent, Esq.