20449: Burnham: Toronto Star: Warrant snags Aristide aide(fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: thor burnham <thorald_mb@hotmail.com>

Warrant snags Aristide aide

Mar. 16, 2004. 07:43 AM
NICHOLAS KEUNG
IMMIGRATION/DIVERSITY REPORTER

Oriel Jean, the security chief of exiled Haitian president Jean-Bertrand
Aristide, was swooped away by the RCMP in the middle of an immigration
hearing in Toronto yesterday, after he was served with an extradition
warrant by the U.S. government.

The hearing that could have seen the 39-year-old man released from
immigration custody was halted abruptly after the Royal Canadian Mounted
Police issued a warrant against him on charges of conspiracy to traffic in
drugs, at the request of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration's office
in Miami.

The surprise move by the Canadian authorities has sparked accusations by
Jean's lawyer, Guidy Mamann, and his family that Canada has forfeited his
right to justice under political pressure from the American government to
assist it with its investigations into drug trafficking.

"It is not about a person with a history of crimes against humanity or fear
of prosecution and persecution (in Haiti).... We have a person who has
information that the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration wants," Mamann
told Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada adjudicator Ilze De Carlo.

Meanwhile, Aristide returned to the Caribbean yesterday for the first time
since being ousted as Haiti's president, enraging the new government with a
visit to Jamaica. Haiti recalled its ambassador in protest amid fears that
Aristide is plotting a return to power.

Jamaican officials said they admitted him for humanitarian reasons. He is to
be reunited with his two daughters, who have been living in New York.

Jean, who was arrested at Pearson airport last Wednesday with his wife
Bettina for his alleged involvement in war crimes and drug trafficking, is
now in the hands of the Mounties. He is to appear in the Superior Court of
Justice this morning on the extradition matter.

Joe Kilmer, a spokesperson in the Miami office of the U.S. Drug Enforcement
Administration, said Jean is being charged with a single count of conspiracy
to smuggle cocaine into the United States relating to activities that took
place from 1999 to 2003.

"Mr. Jean has been provisionally arrested at the request of the U.S.
authorities under the Extradition Act," said Canadian justice spokesperson
Patrick Charette. "He is wanted in the U.S. for drug-related charges,
conspiracy to import cocaine."

But Jean's supporters disagree. "Those who are loyal to Aristide are being
harassed and it has become a witch hunt. It's not just," Jean's close friend
from Montreal, Serge Bouchereau, said after the hearing at the Immigration
and Refugee Board's Toronto headquarters.

Bettina Jean, 34, who was released from the Celebrity Inn refugee holding
facility yesterday afternoon, was shocked when a French translator explained
the extradition warrant. She immediately burst into tears and refused to
comment.

"We want a world that's safe for everybody from terrorism and drug
trafficking. There is a way of doing it. In Canada, we have the Charter of
Rights and the rule of law, and we shouldn't throw that out for anything,
not anything in the world," Mamann said.

Earlier in the hearing, Goudrun Leblanc, counsel for Immigration Canada,
argued that Jean, who had been employed by Aristide since 1991, was a danger
to the Canadian public and might be a flight risk. She also cited
allegations of war crimes and drug trafficking, although few details were
offered.

When Jean and his wife, parents of four young children, were arrested at
Pearson after arriving from the Dominican Republic on their way to catch a
transfer flight to see Bouchereau in Montreal, they were carrying $19,320
(U.S.) in cash. The Jeans are permanent residents of the Dominican Republic
and do not intend to seek asylum on this visit, Mamann noted.

Mamann complained that he and his associates had been denied access to their
client by the staff at the Toronto West Detention Centre until Sunday. He
later learned that Jean had been taken out of his segregated cell and
interviewed by a Drug Enforcement Administration officer twice without the
presence of a lawyer.

"The presence of the D.E.A. officer over the weekend and the fact that we
were denied access to our client for two solid days, something stinks," he
said.

The justice department's Charette said Jean's provisional arrest allows
officials to hold him for 60 days while U.S. authorities submit their formal
request for extradition.

At the end of the 60-day provisional period, Canadian justice officials will
assess whether to proceed with an extradition hearing, Charette said.

With files from Steve Kravitz and Reuters

_________________________________________________________________
Add photos to your messages with MSN Premium. Get 2 months FREE*
http://join.msn.com/?pgmarket=en-ca&page=byoa/prem&xAPID=1994&DI=1034&SU=http://hotmail.com/enca&HL=Market_MSNIS_Taglines