a1837: Judge in case against ex-dictator leaves Haiti (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

     By Michael Deibert

     PORT-AU-PRINCE, April 29 (Reuters) - The judge who signed an arrest
warrant for a former Haitian military dictator left the country for Florida
this weekend, charging the current government had pressured him to
authorize the document.
     Henri Noel, the magistrate for the St. Marc municipality, said he was
pressured to sign the document authorizing the arrest of former strongman
Prosper Avril after being called to Port-au-Prince shortly before Avril's
brief release from prison and then speedy re-arrest earlier this month.
     "I was brought to the office of (Secretary of State for Public
Security) Gerard Dupreval and the warrant had already been printed," said
Noel, speaking to local media from Miami on Monday. "They informed me that
they strongly suggested I sign it, so I did so and left."
     Asked if he felt he had been unduly influenced, Noel said, "When
representatives of the president tell you to sign something, you had better
sign it."
     Avril's lawyer, Reynolds Georges, said, "This demonstrates absolutely
that the arrest was illegal, and we demand Avril's immediate release."
     Government representatives were unavailable for comment.
     Avril, who ruled Haiti from 1988 until 1990, was released from the
National Penitentiary on April 12 after an appellate court declared
President Jean-Bertrand Aristide's government had failed to provide enough
evidence that he had been plotting against state security when he was
arrested last year.
     As Avril was leaving the prison, he was re-arrested on the street by
SWAT-team members on charges he had orchestrated a 1990 massacre of peasant
farmers in the village of Piatre, the subject of the St. Marc warrant.