28903: (news) Chamberlain: Prominent Aristide backer freed from Haitian jail (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

     By Joseph Guyler Delva

     PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, Aug 15 (Reuters) - A well-known singer and
supporter of ousted former Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide has
been freed from prison where she was held on what she decried on Tuesday as
politically motivated charges.
     Criminal court magistrate Fritzner Fils-Aime issued the release order
late on Monday for Annette Auguste, known as So Ann and jailed for more
than two years, and three other prisoners, after deciding there was no
proof they were linked to violence.
     Auguste, 62, and the three others were militants of the Lavalas Family
party of Aristide, a priest turned politician who fled his impoverished
Caribbean nation in 2004 in the face of an armed rebellion.
     They were arrested over an outbreak of violence at a university and
the wounding of its dean but no evidence was produced, as in the cases of
many other former Aristide allies jailed during the U.S.-backed interim
administration of prime minister Gerard Latortue.
     "There has been no evidence linking those people to these incidents,"
said Judge Fils-Aime.
     About a dozen prominent Aristide allies -- including former Prime
Minister Yvon Neptune and former Interior Minister Jocelerme Privert --
have been freed since President Rene Preval took over from the interim
government in May.
     "The interim government and its allies had locked me up because they
were aware of my capacity to mobilize the masses," Auguste told Reuters.
     "They wanted to make sure I did not play any political role that could
benefit Aristide. As a brave woman, I confronted that injustice with
courage, but it feels good to be free again," she said.
     The three other Aristide militants released along with Auguste were
Paul Raymond Jr., Yvon Antoine and George Honore.
     Preval, a former Aristide ally, said recently that about 100 Aristide
allies had been released since he took office.
     But Auguste said hundreds more were still being held.