Haiti Prosecutor asks to drop charges against Neptune. Persecution against So Anne

Haiti- The La Scierie case (which includes Yvon Neptune), is up on appeal, where the defendants are challenging the decision to send the case to trial. Last Friday, June 16, the Appeals Court prosecutor of Gonaives, Roland Paphius issued his recommendations to the Court. The prosecutor asked the Court to drop most of the charges against the defendants, including all against Mr. Neptune. The decision was a courageous one- all of the judicial officials involved in the case are under intense pressure from (foreign-funded) Haitian NGOs to keep all the La Scierie defendants in jail, despite a lack of evidence against them.

Me. Paphius’ recommendations are not binding on the court, but can be highly persuasive. We expect the decision on the appeal within a few weeks. Meanwhile, the defendants had also asked the Court for provisional release (main levée) while it considered the appeal. On June 13, the court ordered provisional release for former Minister of Interior Jocelerme Privert. It refused release for Mr. Neptune, on the grounds that he did not make his request on time.

Also last week, the assistant Appeals Court prosecutor of Port-au-Prince, Florence Mathieu had a similar opportunity to take a stand for justice. The pre-trial appeal in the case of three political prisoners- Annette Auguste, “So Ann,”Yvon Antoine and Paul Raymond- all held in connection with the December 5, 2003 incidents at the State University, was heard on June 14. It would have been easy for Me. Mathieu to recommend dropping the charges- the evidence was so weak that the trial court prosecutor had already found that there was “no evidence, no indication and no presumption of any involvement” by Ms. Auguste. Amnesty International declared Annette Auguste a political prisoner back in January. There was no direct evidence of involvement against either Antoine or Raymond.

But Prosecutor Mathieu not only declined to recommend dropping the groundless charges, she zealously opposed both dropping the charges and provisional release for the three defendants, who have collectively spent over five years in jail. The Court decided against granting any pretrial releases, and is in the process of deciding the appeal (see the Bureau des Avocats Internationaux’ Analysis of Appeals Hearing).

That Ms. Mathieu would participate in this kind of mistreatment is no surprise. She was appointed to her position by the unconstitutional interim government, which adopted judicial persecution as a routine tool for managing political dissidents. She had previously been appointed prosecutor by the 1991-1994 de facto dictatorship. What is surprising, and outrageous, is that Haiti’s current Constitutional authorities, to whom Me. Mathieu answers, allowed her to take such an unjust position in such a prominent case.