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Haiti 'Baby Doc' case spurs claim of gov't sway

FILE - In this Wednesday Oct. 12, 2011 file photo, Haiti's President Michel Martelly, center, shakes hands with former strongman Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier, right, during a meeting in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Duvalier has avoided human rights charges after a judge's investigation that was riddled with mistakes, lacked solid evidence or testimony and featured a parade of prosecutors. The faulty inquiry, activists say, came about after Martelly pressured the court to avoid an incendiary trial just as Haiti is seeking much-needed investment. At left is Jean-Claude Duvalier's son, Francois Nicolas "Nico" Duvalier. (AP Photo, File)

FILE -In this Jan. 18, 2011 file photo, Haiti's ex-dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier, center, acknowledes supporters as police take him out of his hotel in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Duvalier has avoided human rights charges after a judge's investigation that was riddled with mistakes, lacked solid evidence or testimony and featured a parade of prosecutors. The faulty inquiry, activists say, came about after President Michel Martelly pressured the court to avoid an incendiary trial just as Haiti is seeking much-needed investment. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa, File)

FILE - In this Friday Jan. 20, 2012 file photo, former dictator Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier drives away from the courthouse with longtime companion Veronique Roy, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Duvalier has avoided human rights charges after a judge's investigation that was riddled with mistakes, lacked solid evidence or testimony and featured a parade of prosecutors. The faulty inquiry, activists say, came about after President Michel Martelly pressured the court to avoid an incendiary trial just as Haiti is seeking much-needed investment. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa, File)

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By TRENTON DANIEL, The Associated Press Updated 1:41 PM Saturday, February 11, 2012

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Before President Michel Martelly took office in May 2011, Haiti's top prosecutor had recommended that former strongman Jean-Claude Duvalier face trial for the abuses associated with his 15-year rule.

But when the judge released an order last week, it recommended that Duvalier be indicted for only financial crimes. The former "president for life" could receive no more than five years if convicted instead of life in prison on more serious crimes.

On top of that, the sloppily written order in Haiti's biggest court case ever was filled with factual errors, including naming a co-defendant who's been dead for 15 years and another co-defendant, the Duvalier family's decorator, who died in 2003. The judge stopped accepting evidence after five months of investigation, and the case was handed off at different times to five government prosecutors responsible for shepherding the investigation.

The judge's findings and newly disclosed details about how the investigation was conducted have bolstered suspicions among lawyers, plaintiffs and international partners that the Martelly administration, staffed with some officials from the old regime, swayed the outcome of the case.

"I don't know if there was a direct order but it's obvious that the government didn't want to make the case move forward," said Michele Montas, a plaintiff and former journalist who was jailed and expelled from Haiti along with her radio commentator husband under the Duvalier regime. "There's a clear signal that when the executive changed, the climate in the Duvalier case changed."

Reed Brody, counsel of the U.S.-based group Human Rights Watch, said Martelly had made clear how he felt about Duvalier's fate.

"The judge was well aware which way the political winds were blowing," Brody said. "When President Martelly repeatedly suggested a pardon or amnesty of Duvalier and the state prosecutor sought the dismissal of all charges, it was not hard to figure out what the government wanted."

The investigative magistrate at the center of the criticism, Carves Jean, told The Associated Press in his courtroom office Thursday that he stands by his decision.

"People are making noise for their own political reasons," the 47-year-old University of Haiti graduate said, declining to elaborate. "There was no political decision. It was my decision. I'm an independent judge."

He said no new evidence was collected after June 2011 because none was submitted.

However, Haitian attorney Mario Joseph, of the International Bureau of Lawyers, said the judge disregarded the testimony of eight victims who wanted to file claims alleging torture and false imprisonment.

Martelly's deputy chief of staff, Salim Succar, wrote in an email that the Martelly administration has "NEVER" contacted or tried to contact the judge, or influenced or attempted to influence the judge's decision.

Succar also wrote that the Justice Ministry has appealed the judge's decision. And he said the government has asked the World Bank and U.S. government for technical assistance to develop an "outreach program" for judges who handle human rights cases.

Over the past year, however, Martelly has given mixed signals. He's said he'd welcome Duvalier as an adviser. He also said he was open to pardoning the former dictator, only to backtrack.

Defense attorney Reynold Georges called the allegations of interference a "lie," and said critics made such claims to influence the government.

Georges also argues that a 10-year statute of limitations on the alleged crimes has expired, the exact reasoning the judge used in his decision.

Groups such as Human Rights Watch, however, argue that the statute of limitations cannot be invoked to stop the investigation. They say the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in Costa Rica, whose judgments Haiti is legally bound to obey, has held that cases involving gross human rights abuses have no statute of limitations.

Both sides say they plan to appeal the judge's decision.

The investigation began three days after Duvalier mysteriously returned to Haiti on Jan. 16, 2011, following 25 years of exile in France. There was widespread speculation then that he had financed his exile with the $300 million of public money he was accused of looting from Haiti.

Then-prosecutor Harycidas Auguste, under President Rene Preval, sought to prosecute Duvalier for crimes against humanity and financial corruption. That initial case drew heavily on a 1987 corruption case filed by the Haitian government months after the fall of Duvalier.

Auguste cited an attack on Nov. 28, 1980, at Radio Haiti Inter in which Montas and a dozen others were arrested and some were "severely tortured." Human Rights Watch documented that more than 100 journalists and activists were arrested at the radio station.

It's estimated Duvalier and his notorious father, Francois "Papa Doc," ordered the deaths of some 20,000 to 30,000 civilians during their 29-year rule, according to Human Rights Watch.

"The Haitian state had a moral and political responsibility to shed light on these crimes and do something on behalf of the victims," Auguste recalled this week at his law firm as the power turned off and on.

Yet the judiciary in Haiti has long been regarded as corrupt and inefficient, and few cases ever see a trial. Before Duvalier arrived, Haiti's courts had never handled cases involving crimes against humanity.

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