Gérard Jean-Juste
The Court of Appeal of Port-au-Prince has announced the dismissal of all remaining charges against Father Gerard Jean-Juste. The Catholic priest is a prominent supporter of Famni Lavalas, the political party of ousted Haitian president Jean Bertrand Aristide.
Jean-Juste was arrested by the de facto government of Gerard Latortue in July of 2005, after being illegally arrested on a prior occasion in 2004. His imprisonment was such a flagrant act of political repression that Amnesty International designated the priest a “Prisoner of Conscience”. After getting a vial of Jean-Juste’s blood past Latortue’s police, Harvard professor and Partners in Health co-founder Paul Farmer verified that the jailed priest suffered from a form of lymphocytic leukemia that needed immediate treatment. Under intense international pressure the Latortue regime granted Jean-Juste “provisional freedom” in January of 2006 to to receive treatment for leukemia in the U.S.
However, until the court’s announcement of last week, Jean-Juste continued to fend off charges of criminal association and illegal possession of firearms. No evidence had ever been produced to substantiate the allegations. Father Jean-Juste spoke with HaitiAnalysis by telephone from his parish in Haiti - the Church of Saint Claire – where a boisterous celebration was well underway. “I thank my Lord Jesus” he said “I believed he would not abandon me. I forgive everybody who contributed in my two illegal arrests, which could have cost me my life. I could have died in jail. Now I can continue serving the poor.”
The above is from an article by Haitian journalist Wadner Pierre.