ARTICLE - COMMISSIONER SENATUS HEARINGS

COMMISSIONER SENATUS CONDUCTS THE HEARING OF PEOPLE ARRESTED, FRIDAY
(Haiti Libre) -

Since Sunday (May 20), Jean Renel Sénatus, the Government Commissioner, conducted the hearing of some fifty people arrested Friday May 18 and Saturday May 19, following the incidents that followed the parade of several hundred people in combat fatigues, on the occasion of the commemoration of the 209th anniversary of the Flag. If the rule of law in Haiti is undoubtedly an absolute necessity, the statements of Commissioner Sénatus and the adjectives, and comments implied that he used in his statement, appears a tendency to bias and dramatization... Statements which are not reassuring at all for the rights of those arrested, guilty or not in the eyes of the law, but presumed innocent [as any Haitian citizen] until the conclusion of the investigation; a fundamental element of the rule of law.

"...prosecutors worked all weekend, sometimes until 3 am in the police stations, to be able to hear all former military, so that records ouldn be brought before us today [Monday], because the Constitution gives 48 hours to present a citizen in court. We want to respect the rights of these people [...]

When we speak of former military, I must say [...] that all the people we have arrested are not former military. There are many among them who are 18 to 30 years of age, and former military who have up to 60 years. Those between 18 and 30, are recruits [...] they are aspiring military and they served in uniform, and they were in the street. They fabricated false weapons to traumatize the population. We seized many false weapons [...] We have seized [in camps] Molotov cocktails also. There were also plenty of condoms; this shows that there was debauchery, and obscenity in the camps...

Today they are in custody. We will continue our work as Commissioner of the Government. We will make the decanting, some of them make a misuse of the title (usurpation of title). They say they are former military, so they were never in the army [...] we will prosecute them for misuse of the title.

Others will be prosecuted for criminal conspiracy, because every person who was part of the army, paid 50 dollars for registration, a card is made for 30 dollars, so there is money that is circulated, imagine if 3,000 people are registered, how much money it's been...

We will also prosecute them for plotting against the internal security of the state, because we believe that some of them had guns. We have seized weapons [...] They carried arms illegally, and this has broken the investments in the country, that broke the desire of citizens who wanted to visit the country, and which have not come, because they are told there is a group that has guns in their hands, which traumatize the population [...] So, the Government Commissioner will prosecute such persons for conspiracy against the internal security of the state, and illegal possession of firearms [...]

Finally, we will prosecute them for an assassination attempt on the police officer Janvier, an officer of the BIM [Motorized Intervention Brigade]. People had tried to disarm him May 18. We will prosecute them for an assassination attempt, with beginning an execution...

[...] The prosecution is amazed to discover [...] there are two foreigners who say they are U.S. citizens. We have not yet authenticated their statements with the U.S. Embassy; but they are in our hands, because they were in the army with a uniform on them, and one of them has participated in a lot of banditry in the country..."