<html>
<body>
<font face="Trebuchet MS" size=4><b>
<a href="http://www.ijdh.org/index.html">INSTITUTE FOR JUSTICE
</a><a href="http://www.ijdh.org/index.html">AND DEMOCRACY IN HAITI<br>
</a></font><font face="Trebuchet MS" size=3>(541) 432-0597 -
<a href="http://www.ijdh.org/index.html">www.ijdh.org</a> -
<a href="mailto:info@ijdh.org">info@ijdh.org<br><br>
</a></b></font>
<a href="http://www.haitiaction.net/News/IJDH/12_21_5.html" eudora="autourl">
http://www.haitiaction.net/News/IJDH/12_21_5.html<br><br>
</a><font size=4 color="#BD0000"><b><i>Half-Hour for
Haiti:</i></font><font size=3> Firing of Supreme Court Justices
<br><br>
</b>Thank you to everyone who responded to the alerts for Fr. Jean-Juste
last week.. <br><br>
Forty-one members of Congress signed Rep.
<a href="http://www.ijdh.org/articles/article_recent_news_12-20-05.htm">
Maxine Waters’ Letter to President Bush seeking Fr. Jean-Juste’s
release.</a> That is the most we have had for any Congressional letter on
Haiti to President Bush, despite a short timeframe and the holiday
season. Rep. Dan Burton (R. IN, Chair of the Subcommittee on the Western
Hemisphere of the House Committee on International Relations)
demonstrated that this was a bipartisan issue by urging Asst. Secretary
of State Thomas Shannon to ensure that Fr. Jean-Juste receives immediate
treatment. Please thank your Representative if he or she pitched in
on this effort.<br><br>
<b>This week’s action is short and educational:</b> <i>read the attached
press release from the Bureau des Avocats Internationaux.<br><br>
</i></font><h1><b>BAI condemns the firing of Haiti's Supreme Court
Judges</b></h1><font size=3><b>(BAI) Port au Prince, Haiti</b> - The
Bureau des Avocats Internationaux (BAI), directed by Attorney Mario
Joseph, strongly condemns the forced retirement of five Justices of the
Cour de Cassation (Supreme Court) of the Republic of Haiti and considers
the action a serious attack against the independence and integrity of the
Judicial Branch and of the Constitution.<br><br>
The firings constitute a flagrant violation of articles 174 and 177 of
the Constitution of 1987, which prescribe that the Justices of the Cour
de Cassation are named for a term of ten (10) years, are irremovable, and
cannot be dismissed except for a legally established breach of duty or
suspended following an indictment. They cannot be retired during their
term except in the case of properly documented permanent physical or
mental incapacity. The BAI emphasizes that the Executive Branch has no
role in making such a documentation, even less in the absence of any
medical report.<br><br>
The BAI points out that the nomination of five new judges was illegal,
and consequently void, being contrary to article 175 of the Constitution,
according to which justices of the Cour de Cassation are named from a
list submitted by the Senate of the Republic. No nomination may be made
without Parliamentary participation, even in a transition
period.<br><br>
The BAI is concerned by the fact that the five new judges took the oath
of office in the National Palace, contrary to the principles of
separation of powers and article 129 of the Decree of August 22, 1995 on
Judicial Organization, which stipulates that the Cour de Cassation sits
at the Palace of Justice. Furthermore, the swearing in at the National
Palace violated the principle of public access to official events,
established by article 180 of the Constitution and by article 61 of the
above-mentioned decree.<br><br>
The BAI observes that the strike by judges and other judicial personnel
declared by the National Association of Haitian Magistrates (ANAMAH) has
paralyzed the judicial system. The BAI is especially preoccupied by the
fact that the first victims of this paralysis are those detained in the
country's jails, over ninety percent of whom have never been tried. The
BAI appeals to the judges to consider that the detainees should not pay
the price of the unconstitutional acts of the Executive Branch and its
frustrated allies. Is now a good time for a strike, when the famous cases
of Raboteau, Piatre, Jean-Rabel, Jean Dominique, Brignol Lindor etc. to
this day lie dormant in the desk drawers of the country's
courthouses?<br><br>
The BAI deplores that ANAMAH and the entire judicial corps did not
protest with the same fervor against other interferences and attacks on
judicial independence in the recent past, such as the letter from former
Justice Minister Bernard Gousse, of December 30, 2004 to the Chief Judge
of the Port-au-Prince trial court. The letter ordered the Chief Judge to
remove all the case files in the possession of Investigating Magistrates
Jean Sénat Fleury and Brédy Fabien, after Judge Fleury had ordered the
liberation of Fr. Jean-Juste, and Judge Fabien had accorded provisional
release to Harold Sévère, Jaques Anthony Nazaire, Paul Keller and Rospide
Pétion. Did we not see, less than a year ago, Minister Bernard Gousse
revoke by a simple circular a restraining order on the offices of the BNC
of Cap-Haitien issued by the Chief Judge of the Trial Court, without any
protest by the Magistrates of ANAMAH? The BAI also asks: do the
magistrates go on strike to protest against the practice of illegal
arrests made without any judicial warrant and outside of any hot pursuit
justification, where the police substitute themselves for the justice
system? What is said against the corruption that has infected the justice
system?<br><br>
According to the BAI, the justice system cannot be surprised by the
decision to fire five judges of the Cour de Cassation after having, for
months, shown complaisance towards the Executive Branch, even approved
some of its many arbitrary acts. Examples of this complaisance are
manifest in the decision of the Cour de Cassation annulling the judgment
of the Trial Court of Gona*ves in the Raboteau massacre case. In order to
do so, the Cour de Cassation contradicted a series of decisions that had
become settled law: its own earlier decision, issued in 2000, which had
confirmed a decision of the Gona*ves Court of Appeals, which itself had
confirmed a court order to send the case before a jury. The BAI observed
the same complaisance in the procedures and the liberation of Louis Jodel
Chamblain, who, before turning himself into the justice system gave a
press conference with the Minister of Justice at his side, which implied
the influence on the government throughout the whole procedure. <br><br>
In conclusion, the BAI believes that that the protests and the work
stoppage of the Magistrates of ANAMAH and other judicial personnel to
defend and rescue the integrity of the Judicial Branch come much too
late. Justice died well before now.<br><br>
</font><x-sigsep><p></x-sigsep>
<font size=3 color="#FF0000">The Freedom Archives<br>
522 Valencia Street<br>
San Francisco, CA 94110<br>
(415) 863-9977<br>
</font><font size=3>
<a href="http://www.freedomarchives.org/" eudora="autourl">
www.freedomarchives.org</a></font></body>
</html>