30500: Spinelli (news) The money that was going to Baby Doc has been stopped! (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: MASpinelli@aol.com

Swiss court blocks release of former  Haiti dictator's funds, lawyer for
victims says
 (http://www.pr-inside.com/print138743.htm) ©  AP
2007-05-30 16:08:38 -

GENEVA (AP) - A Geneva court has blocked the release of some of the 7.6
million Swiss francs (US$6.2 million; ¤4.6 million) stashed in Switzerland by
former Haitian dictator Jean-Claude «Baby Doc» Duvalier, a lawyer for two
Haitians said Wednesday.

The decision comes days before a freeze on all  of the ex-president's Swiss
accounts is due to expire, which would allow the  money to be returned to the
Duvalier family, Marc Henzelin said.

«We  received the notice that the order has been issued, so that our request
has been  accepted,» he told The Associated Press.

It was not immediately possible  to confirm the ruling with the court.

Henzelin's legal firm lodged a  request with the cantonal (state) court of
Geneva on behalf of two Haitians, a  taxi driver and a priest, who were awarded
damages against Duvalier worth  US$750,000 and US$1 million respectively by a
U.S. court in 1988.

The  U.S. District Court in Miami also ordered US$500 million to be paid to
the  Haitian people under the Alien Tort Claims Act, according to Miami
attorney Ira  J. Kurzban who represented the claimants in the case.

Last week, a senior  Swiss Foreign Ministry official warned that the money in
Duvalier's Swiss  accounts would have to be released on June 3 because all
legal means to retain  it had been exhausted.

The head of the ministry's international law  department, Paul Seger, said
last week that the government in Haiti tried to  recover the funds after
Duvalier was ousted in 1986, but the judicial process  ground to a halt in the 
chaos
that engulfed the Caribbean country during the  years that followed. A
temporary block imposed by the Swiss government has been  in force since, but 
that is
due to expire.

The latest court decision  affects only one account, with the Geneva branch
of UBS AG, held in the name of  a foundation based in the tiny principality of
Liechtenstein, Henzelin said.  Fondation Brouilly is owned by a Panama-based
company, which in turn is owned by  members of the Duvalier family.

Henzelin said it was not known at this  point how much money was in the
Geneva account. Duvalier had at least two  further accounts in Lausanne and 
Zurich,
though the latter could have been  closed, he said.

To recover money on behalf of Duvalier's victims, a  Swiss court would have
to be convinced that the funds were of criminal  origin.

On Thursday, Haitian Foreign Minister Jean Renald Clerisme said a  Central
Bank official would be sent to Switzerland to make a final attempt at
recovering some or all of the money, which Duvalier allegedly stole from state 
coffers
during his time in power.





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