25798: (news) Chamberlain: Haiti-Journalist Slain (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

   By ALFRED DE MONTESQUIOU

   PORT-AU-PRINCE, July 22 (AP) -- A priest allied to ousted President
Jean-Bertrand Aristide has been arrested in connection with the killing of
a prominent journalist, his lawyer said Friday.
   The Rev. Gerard Jean-Juste was questioned by the judge and sent to the
Central Prison and told he would be charged in connection with the death of
Jacques Roche, said Bill Quigley, the priest's American defense attorney.
   However, chief government prosecutor Audain Daniel said a decision had
not yet been made on whether to charge Jean-Juste, an outspoken critic of
Haiti's interim government.
   In an interview before he was questioned by the judge, Jean-Juste, a
possible candidate for president in fall elections, was in a cell with more
than 20 people and said he feared for his life.
   "My enemies are trying to eliminate me," he said in an interview with
The Associated Press.
   The priest has emerged as a leader of Aristide's Lavalas Family party,
which has been accused by the interim government of stoking violence to
push for the return of the former president, who was ousted following a
bloody rebellion in 2004.
   Jean-Juste denied any involvement in the death of Roche, whose body was
found in the street five days after he was abducted in the capital in a
slaying that the government blamed on armed supporters of Aristide.
   More than 700 people have been killed since in Haiti since September.
Most of the violence in Haiti is blamed on well-armed street gangs loyal to
Aristide. But Aristide supporters allege their members have been the
victims of killings and other atrocities at the hands of Haiti's police.