a1893: Fearing for his life, investigating judge Henri Kesner Noelfled Haiti (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: amedard@gte.net

Associated Press Writer

Mon Apr 29, 8:54 PM ET
By MICHAEL NORTON, Associated Press Writer

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - Fearing for his life, investigating judge Henri Kesner Noel
fled Haiti and said Monday that Haitian authorities pressured him to sign an arrest
warrant for former military dictator Prosper Avril.

"I didn't write" the arrest warrant, Noel told the Miami-based Haitian community
Radio Carnaval. "I was forced to sign it."

Police arrested Avril at the gate of the National Penitentiary on April 15, just
minutes after he was released from prison.

Noel, who was an investigating judge in west-coast St. Marc, said he had been
summoned April 15 to the Port-au-Prince office of National Security Undersecretary
Jean-Gerard Dubreuil and presented with a fait accompli.

"It was suggested the government of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide wanted to revive
the Avril case," Noel said, adding that he was pressured to sign the warrant.

The arrest "was purely political," he said.

The presidential spokesman, Jacques Maurice, said Monday that Noel's allegations were
false.

"Noel's insinuation that President Aristide gave orders to have Avril re-arrested is
a lie," Maurice said.

Noel, his pregnant wife, four children, and mother flew to Miami on April 26, where
he said he intended to ask for political asylum.

"My security is in jeopardy," he told the private Radio Kiskeya.

Avril was released on April 11, after the Port-au-Prince Appeals Court ruled that his
arrest last year for plotting to overthrow the government was arbitrary and illegal.

Within minutes of the release, Avril was imprisoned again and charged with complicity
in the murder of about a dozen peasants killed by soldiers in Piate, in the St. Marc
jurisdiction and about 80 kilometers (50 miles) northwest of the capital.

The massacre took place March 13, 1990, three days after a popular uprising forced
Avril to resign and one day after Avril went into exile in the United States.

Avril was chief of presidential security under dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier, until
Duvalier's ouster in 1986.

He seized power in September 1988, ousting then-dictator Lt. Gen. Henry Namphy. He
pledged to hold elections, but never followed through.

It is unclear when Avril returned to Haiti, but last year he reappeared at a meeting
of the Convergence opposition alliance and was arrested shortly after.

In January, investigating judge Claudy Gassant fled Haiti, also saying he feared for
his life. He had been investigating the April 2000 assassination of Haiti's most
prominent journalist Jean Dominique.