Haitian political prisoners Father Jean Juste, Sò Anne and Jacques Mathalier send their love to Bay View readers, some of their strongest supporters. Despite their imprisonment for months and years, they keep encouraging each other and organizing inside and outside the walls. Father Jean Juste, who has just been diagnosed with leukemia - note his swollen neck - and folksinger Sò Anne have both been officially designated political prisoners by Amnesty International. While they all continue to demand the return of President Aristide, they urge solidarity behind the candidacy of former President René Préval, who promises to release political prisoners. "We have no doubt that President Préval will win the election. We are sure that we will get out of here," says Jacques Mathalier.

Amid headline news reports of electoral campaigning, Haiti's political prisoners continue to languish behind bars. They spend their days wondering if the election will bring their freedom, wondering if their friends and family are safe. Without access to information, without their freedom, they can do little more than wonder and hold onto the hope that those on the outside have not forgotten their plight.

Many of these prisoners have been illegally held for over 18 months, living in crowded and unsanitary conditions, isolated from their families and communities. Who are they? They are grassroots organizers, former officials from the Lavalas government and family members of community activists who have been forced into exile or hiding.

They are people who threaten the current unelected government through their persistent calls for respect for the Haitian Constitution and the restoration of democracy. Months of imprisonment have not dampened the commitment of many of Haiti's political prisoners, an incredible testament to the courage and resilience of the Haitian people.

Most well known is Father Gérard Jean Juste, beloved priest and advocate for the poor, who has been imprisoned for close to six months. Father Jean Juste was arrested on July 21, 2005, after being assaulted by a crowd at the funeral of kidnapped journalist Jacques Roche.

He was initially brought to the police station by U.N. forces, who turned him over to the police after telling him he was being brought in for his own safety. That night Father Jean Juste was placed behind bars under allegations that he was involved in the journalist's death, despite the fact that he was at a demonstration at the Brazilian consulate in Miami when the journalist was kidnapped.

Even after nearly six months in prison, Father Jean Juste retains his spirit of optimism, fueled, he says, by his faith in God. Each day he prays with the other prisoners. He says, "It is the love and support of my friends on the outside that keeps me alive. I am trying to spread that love everywhere, to share the hope that you bring me with the other prisoners."

Though his spirit is strong, Father Jean Juste's physical health is declining. After the beating at Roche's funeral, Father Jean Juste became ill and his neck swelled. The swelling was initially thought to be temporary and related to the beating, but it worsened, and now he says that it is difficult to hear out of his left ear.

Several weeks ago, Father Jean Juste was diagnosed with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) by Dr. Paul Farmer of Harvard, a friend and physician who has been working in rural Haiti for decades. Though CLL is highly treatable, it jeopardizes the immune system, leaving the body susceptible to infection.

Given how quickly Father Jean Juste's condition has progressed and the potential for infection in prison, doctors are urging the unelected Haitian government and Ministry of Justice to release Jean Juste for medical care outside of Haiti. These calls for Jean Juste's release match the demands of 42 members of Congress, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and thousands of solidarity activists, religious leaders and concerned citizens around the world.

Father Jean Juste received over 700 letters just before Christmas from people around the world concerned for his life. In a move that signifies a response to public pressure, the U.S. Embassy is urging Jean Juste to receive treatment in a hospital in Haiti, an option considered unsafe by lawyers and inadvisable by medical professionals.

Undaunted, Father Jean Juste calls on activists around the world to "keep up the pressure. The new year will bring freedom for all the courageous prisoners unjustly accused."

Jacques Mathalier, a former Lavalas delegate from southern Haiti, shares a cell with Father Jean Juste at the National Prison Annex at Pacot. This is not the first time these men have found themselves imprisoned under the same roof. Father Jean Juste also spent several months in the National Penitentiary with Mathalier following his arrest in October 2004, when he was dragged out of the church rectory while feeding children from the neighborhood.

The National Penitentiary is a densely overcrowded prison in Port au Prince. In March 2005 the prison had 902 prisoners, only one of whom had been convicted of a crime. Father Jean Juste was released in November 2004 following massive pressure from the international community. Jacques Mathalier remained in the National Penitentiary until his recent transfer to Pacot.

Mathalier was arrested in June 2005 in his hometown of Les Cayes soon after the former Justice Minister for the unelected government, Bernard Gousse, came to Les Cayes with people from the Group of 184, an organization led by the business community that directed the opposition to Aristide. Gousse and the Group of 184 made a series of unsubstantiated allegations about the Lavalas leadership in Les Cayes being involved in violence, and several days later Mathalier was arrested.

At the time of his arrest, the police produced a warrant charging him with attempted assassination and house burning, but the authorities refused to disclose who he had attempted to kill or which houses he may have planned to burn. After several months in prison in Les Cayes, he was transferred to Port au Prince, where the charges shifted to murder and arson. The Justice Department has yet to provide the name of the person who was killed or the house that was burned.

Meanwhile Jacques Mathalier has spent 18 months behind bars away from his family and community, much of that time in the National Penitentiary. On Feb. 19, 2005, there was a prison break at the National Penitentiary, and hundreds of prisoners escaped. Mathalier recalls that he was forced out of his cell at the time like many other prisoners.

Unlike many of the other prisoners, Mathalier returned the next day with his family. When offered a choice between escaping from prison and living the life of a fugitive for crimes that he didn't commit or returning to prison where he could fight for justice assured of his own innocence, Mathalier chose the latter. He said, "I came in with my head held high, and I was not going to leave with it hanging down."

Described by friends as a man of integrity and dedication, Mathalier holds onto hope that the situation will change, saying, "You see I am optimistic. There is no other choice."

In the Pétionville Penitentiary across town, Annette Auguste, known as Sò Anne, has spent 20 months in prison. On Tuesday, Amnesty International officially declared Sò Anne a "political prisoner" and launched a belated appeal case on her behalf.

Activists have been pressuring Amnesty to take on Sò Anne's case since her illegal arrest on May 10, 2004, Mother's Day, when U.S. Marines - who were briefly in Haiti following the Feb. 29, 2004, coup d'état - entered her house at 1 a.m., using a grenade to break down the door. No Haitian police were present during the arrest, and no warrant was produced at the time.

During the arrest, all members of Sò Anne's family, including several children, were cuffed and dark hoods placed over their heads. Marines raided the house, breaking many of the family's personal belongings and confiscating all family members' passports. The family's two dogs were beheaded during the violent entry.

Other family members were released, but Sò Anne remains behind bars, subject to ever shifting allegations against her, ranging from racist to patently absurd. Marine spokesman David Lapan originally alleged that Sò Anne had been collaborating with members of a local mosque to attack U.S. troops. Allegations against her now oscillate between the vague charge of inciting violence at a demonstration on Dec. 5, 2003, to her having killed a baby with a mortar and pestle then wiped the blood on President Aristide during a voodoo ceremony in 2000.

Like Jean Juste and Mathalier, Sò Anne has not lost the fierce spirit which made her such an effective community organizer before her arrest. Prior to her imprisonment, she worked with women's groups and community nutrition centers in Port au Prince. Now she works with the other prisoners, sharing her food brought by friends and teaching other women to read.

Sò Anne speaks out vehemently against the human rights abuses perpetrated by the current government and against the role of the United States, France and Canada in overthrowing Haiti's democracy. She says that they are afraid to release her because "they know I am a powerful organizer. They know I'm not afraid to speak out against the injustice that is happening in Haiti."

The Pétionville Penitentiary is now a women's prison, where hundreds of women are crammed into cells, sometimes up to 20 women per cell. In August 2004 there were only 45 prisoners, now there are over 200. Most of these women are poor women from Bel Air, Cité Soleil, Martissant and other poor neighborhoods in Port au Prince where support for Aristide remains strongest.

Many of the women now imprisoned at Pétionville were swept up in police raids of their neighborhoods. Some of them are activists; others are family members of activists. These are the forgotten political prisoners, the hundreds of women and men who find themselves behind bars for their commitment to democracy.

These prisoners have not only been denied due process, they have also been denied the right to participate in Haiti's elections, either as candidates or voters. The fact that so many important leaders remain in prison or exile is a stain which will tarnish the upcoming elections if they are not released.

Their plight challenges international demands for "free and fair" elections and should be a foremost consideration for governments claiming to support democracy in Haiti. Unfortunately, the United States, Canada and France, the three countries most heavily involved in the destabilization and overthrow of Haiti's democratically elected government in 2004, have remained silent on the issue of political prisoners. These world powers are so focused on the appearance of free and fair elections in Haiti that they are willing to overlook substance to forward their own political agendas.

The high profile cases of Father Jean Juste, Jacques Mathalier and Sò Anne illustrate a much wider pattern of injustice. All three expressed hope that their cases will draw attention to the plague of political repression that has swept Haiti since the overthrow of the democratically elected government in February 2004. SF Bay View readers help to feed that hope.

Dr. Sasha Kramer, sash@stanford.edu, is a freelance ecologist and human rights observer who visits and reports from Haiti frequently.