29474: Potemaksonje (news) The Lucius Affair: The Senate forms a commission to look into the dossier; Judge Saintil succeeds in removing senator Latortue from the commission (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: potemaksonje@yahoo.com


The Lucius Affair:  The Senate forms a commission to
look into the dossier; Judge Saintil succeeds in
removing senator Latortue from the commission


Port-au-Prince, November 8th 2006 (AHP).  On Wednesday
the president of the Senate, Joseph Lambert, announced
the creation of a special senatorial commission to try
to shed light onto the dossier of the central director
of the judicial police (DCPJ), Michaël Lucius.

A bench warrant against Mr. Lucius was issued last
week by the examining magistrate Napela Saintil after
three invitations and a warrant to appear before the
court failed to bring Lucius to the courthouse to
respond to serious accusations of alleged complicity
in acts of kidnapping.

The bench warrant has remained a dead letter since the
police (an institution to which Lucius belongs) still
have not acted on it.

The leader of the senate indicated that the upper
chamber has the right to become involved in the case
"in light of the fact that it has become an affair of
state and also because of the constitutional
prerogatives of this august body [the Senate]."

Before adopting any measures, Senator Lambert
remarked,  the commission should meet with the Minster
of Justice, René Magloire, the examining magistrate,
Napela Saintil, the divisional commissioner, Michaël
Lucius, the president of the High Court, Prime
Minister Jacques Edouard Alexis, and President Préval
himself.

Senate president Lambert nonetheless indicated that he
received a letter from Judge Saintil objecting to the
presence, at the very heart of this commission, of
Youri Latortue,  the chair of the Justice Commission
of the Senate, since the judge himself confirms having
already indicted Youri Latortue, the former military
man who joined the parliament.  He did not confirm
what type of dossier the accusations referred to.

Joseph Lambert made it known that Mr. Latortue agreed
not to participate in the commission.

The association of Haitian magistrates had, at the
beginning of the week, denounced the mingling of
parliament members in the affairs of the judiciary,
accusing Senators of having exerted pressure to have
judges removed.

With a judicial system in further paralysis,
discussions continued again Wednesday to find an exit
strategy for the Lucius-Saintil affair before the end
of the week.

For more than a week, the government prosecutor has
refused to receive individuals arrested by members of
the DCPJ.

"How can one receive those accused by an institution
whose chief is the object of a bench warrant? ", asked
a source close to the prosecutor, responding to the
sectors that have been critical of prosecutor
Gassant's decision.

Meanwhile, the examining magistrate, Napela Saintil,
says he is extremely worried about his safety.

In spite of steps he says he has taken with higher-ups
of the national police, no arrangements have been made
to insure his safety and to help him do his work.
AHP November 8th, 2006 1:00pm




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