27382: (news) Chamberlain: Haiti-Jailed Priest (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

   By DENISE KALETTE

   MIAMI, Jan 29 (AP) -- A politically influential Roman Catholic priest
arrived in Miami on Sunday after Haiti's government granted him a temporary
release from jail to be treated for leukemia and pneumonia.
   The Rev. Gerard Jean-Juste will be treated at Jackson Memorial Hospital,
said Ira Kurzban, an attorney who has worked with the cleric for years.
   He has been in prison on suspicion of involvement in the killing of
prominent Haitian journalist and poet Jacques Roche. The 59-year-old priest
has always denied the allegations.
   Kurzban said Haiti buckled under public pressure to allow Jean-Juste to
seek treatment in the United States.
   "They certainly did not do this willingly and on their own," Kurzban
said.
   Amnesty International has labeled Jean-Juste, who supports ousted
President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, "a prisoner of conscience." He has drawn
comparisons to Aristide for his impassioned sermons and advocacy for the
poor and has emerged as a prominent figure in the ousted leader's Lavalas
Family party.
   The Haitian government granted Jean-Juste a provisional release from
jail for humanitarian reasons, said Michel Brunache, chief of staff of
interim President Boniface Alexandre.
   "His leukemia cannot be treated in Haiti," Brunache told the Associated
Press. "After his treatment, he has to return to face justice."
   A judge cleared Jean-Juste of homicide, but he is charged with weapons
possession and criminal conspiracy -- charges that the priest denies.
   His arrival in Miami pleased Haitian-American activists. A small group
of people had gathered at a community center in the city's Little Haiti
neighborhood Sunday afternoon.
   "It is very good news because we did get the report last week that he
was very critical," said Jean-Robert LaFortune, chairman of the
Haitian-American Grassroots Coalition. "There has been a community outcry
here in Miami to have the prime minister of Haiti free him so he could get
adequate care."
   U.S. Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., chairman of the Foreign Relations
Committee and a champion of Jean-Juste's, said he was delighted when he
received a call from Haiti's interim Prime Minister Gerard Latortue telling
him of the release.
   The priest's supporters tried to register him as a presidential
candidate last fall for the upcoming Feb. 7 elections, but authorities
barred his candidacy because he was in prison.
   ------
   Associated Press reporter Stevenson Jacobs in Port-au-Prince, Haiti,
contributed to this report.