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August
8, 2005 
VOL.
43, NO. 14Oakland,
CA
Amnesty International appeals for jailed priest
Amnesty International, the head of a local foundation
supporting Haiti’s poor, and other supporters are lobbying on behalf
of Father Gerard Jean-Juste, a Haitian priest arrested last month while
attending a funeral and held in solitary confinement.
Father Jean-Juste, who visited the Bay Area and spoke at local churches
this past winter, has been declared a “prisoner of conscience”
by Amnesty International. The human rights organization stated that he
was “detained solely because he has peacefully exercised his right
to freedom of expression.”
Margaret Trost of Albany, head of the What If? Foundation, which supports
food programs at the priest’s Port-au-Prince parish, has asked supporters
to contact officials and demand his release.
The priest was arrested on July 21, when he attended the funeral of a
slain journalist, Jacques Roche. According to Bill Quigley, a Loyola University
law professor who was with him at the time, police said they arrested
Father Jean-Juste “for his own safety” after a crowd at the
funeral attacked him. His attackers were allowed to go free.
The priest was later told he was suspected of the kidnapping and murder
of the journalist on July 10, although he was in Florida at the time of
the murder.
Neither Father Jean-Juste nor his attorneys have received an arrest warrant
or statement of the charges. “He is one of dozens of [former Haitian
president] Aristide supporters who have been arbitrarily detained in this
way,” Amnesty International said.
He has been an outspoken supporter of Aristide and a critic of the present
Haitian government in his sermons and radio broadcasts. He was arrested
last October without a warrant at his church, Ste. Claire, and released
after six weeks in custody.
Since his return from Florida on July 15, he has been the target of accusations
in the government-controlled press, which claimed that he is guilty of
smuggling guns and money into the country and was involved in a recent
rash of kidnappings.
According to the Associated Press, Haitian authorities said they have
ordered a judicial investigation into the charges against him.
The crowd at the funeral called him “assassin” and “criminal”
and yelled, “Kill the rat!” They spit on him and hit him and
also attacked Quigley and a woman in the crowd who came forward to protect
the priest. After police extricated him from the mob, they took him to
a nearby police station for questioning and later said they were arresting
him because of the “public clamor.”
Quigley said that as he has led away, Father Jean-Juste said, “Now
you see what we are up against in Haiti. If they treat me like this, think
how they treat the poor people.”
According to Amnesty International, the priest was transferred from a
local jail to the national penitentiary, where he was being held in solitary
confinement. Several days after his arrest protesters in Cite Soleil,
a slum at the edge of the capital, held a demonstration and called for
Fr. Jean-Juste’s release.
For information on efforts to free Fr. Jean-Juste’s from prison,
visit the website www.HaitiAction.org.
