8305: Prosecutor unable to meet deadline in Dominique case (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Max Blanchet <maxblanchet@worldnet.att.net>

Haiti: Prosecutor unable to meet deadline in Dominique case
BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; Jun 14, 2001

Text of report by Haitian Signal FM radio on 13 June

Concerning the inquiry into the murder of Radio Haiti Inter Director Jean
Leopold Dominique, lawyer Josue Pierre-Louis, Port-au-Prince public
prosecutor, who is in possession of the inquiry report, says he is not yet
ready to publish the brief on the Jean Dominique murder case. Pierre-Louis
says he is facing many difficulties in the report that was given to him by
Judge Claudy Gassant. But he has promised to do his best so the job can be
done properly. Pierre-Louis's statements follow:

[Pierre-Louis - recording] It is voluminous. I have to read the entire
dossier from the first page to the last. It is a really exhausting job. I am
supposed to do a good job with much professionalism while taking into
account the principles of the law and justice. So, we do not believe that we
will really be able to render the brief within the seven-day deadline. Well,
everybody can understand it.

It is a complex and complicated dossier. This is so true that even the
examining judge had to take more than a year to submit the dossier to the
Public Prosecutor's Office even though the law provides three months for
that. So, I think that we will not really have time to render the brief
within a seven-day deadline because we do not want to produce slapdash work.
We want to do produce work well done. We are working without interruption in
order to hand down the decision, the brief, within a reasonable deadline. We
are not going to take much time with it. At the Public Prosecutor's Office,
we do not say that we will be able to respect the deadline of five [clear]
days given the extent of the dossier. But we will [not] be long rendering
the brief. [End of recording]

Source: Signal FM Radio, Port-au-Prince, in Creole 1230 gmt 13 Jun 01

/BBC Monitoring/ © BBC