PORT-AU-PRINCE, Feb 12, 2021 (BSS/AFP) – A Haitian Supreme Court judge who
was arrested on charges of taking part in an alleged coup plot has been
released from prison, his attorney said Thursday.
Judge Yvickel Dieujuste Dabresil “was just freed” and has returned home,
his lawyer Marc-Antoine Maisonneuve told AFP.
With Haiti in another political crisis as protesters take to the streets to
denounce President Jovenel Moise, Dabresil was among 23 people arrested over
the weekend on suspicion of an “attempted coup.”
The protesters say Moise’s term ended Sunday but the president insists he
has another year in office.
Moise has been ruling by decree for a year because there is no parliament
right now. Legislative elections due in 2018 were delayed.
Judge Dabresil’s status has been a source of confusion for the past few
days.
His lawyers had said he was released Wednesday from prison on the outskirts
of the Haitian capital but remained under judicial supervision.
But human rights activist Marie-Yolene Gilles of the Je Klere Foundation
later said the judge remained in prison.
The judge’s lawyers were reportedly denied access to the prison where he
was being held.
“Yesterday it was force that prevailed but today is a major victory for the
law,” said the attorney Maisonneuve.
Of those arrested over the weekend, 17 remain in the Croix-des-Bouquets
prison on the outskirts of Port-au-Prince, the lawyer said.
Under Haiti’s constitution, a Supreme Court judge can be charged only if
two-thirds of the members of parliament decide so. But this is impossible now
because there is no legislature.
The accusations of coup plotting leveled by the authorities were received
with skepticism by the opposition and civil society leaders, who say the
government is arresting people illegally on political grounds.
The dispute over when the president’s term ends stems from Moise’s original
election. He was voted into office in a poll subsequently canceled after
allegations of fraud, and then elected again a year later, in 2016.