Haiti charges returned ex-dictator Duvalier

PORT-AU-PRINCE, (Reuters) – Haiti yesterday briefly  detained former dictator Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier, back  from exile in France, and charged him with corruption, theft  and abuses of power allegedly committed during his 15-year  rule.

Jean-Claude Duvalier

While a noisy crowd of his supporters protested outside the  prosecutor’s office, Duvalier, 59, was questioned over  accusations that he stole public funds and committed human  rights abuses after taking over as president in 1971.

Port-au-Prince Chief Prosecutor Aristidas Auguste said his  office had filed charges against Duvalier of corruption, theft,  misappropriation of funds and other alleged crimes committed  during the former president’s 1971-1986 period in power.

“His fate is now in the hands of the investigating judge.  We have brought charges against him,” Auguste told Reuters.

The charges must now be investigated by the judge who will  decide whether a criminal case should go ahead.

After several hours of questioning, he left the  prosecutor’s office but was ordered to remain in the country at  the disposition of judicial authorities. “He doesn’t have the  right to go anywhere,” investigating judge Carves Jean said.

Duvalier, who fled Haiti in 1986 during a popular uprising,  was earlier escorted by heavily armed police from the luxury  hotel where he had stayed since his unexpected arrival on  Sunday from France, after a quarter century in exile.

Smartly dressed in a blue suit and tie, but looking frail,  he waved and smiled briefly to supporters at the hotel.

The  chubby cheeks that he had as a 19-year-old when he took power  as the world’s youngest head of state 25 years ago have sagged,  showing the passage of time.

The former dictator’s return to his earthquake-battered  Caribbean homeland, the Western Hemisphere’s poorest state, was  a shock to Haitians and to foreign governments. The country is  in the midst of a political crisis caused by chaotic and  inconclusive elections held on Nov. 28.

The political uncertainty comes on top of an ongoing  cholera epidemic that has killed more than 3,800 people and  efforts to rebuild the crippled nation after the huge  earthquake a year ago that claimed more than 316,000 lives.

“OPPORTUNITY … FOR JUSTICE”

Human rights groups welcomed the detention but urged the  Haitian authorities to fully investigate the full range of  accusations against Duvalier.      Amnesty International Special Adviser Javier Zuniga said  Duvalier, while ruling as “President-for-Life,” had presided  over a security apparatus which “carried out widespread and  systematic human rights violations including torture, arbitrary  detentions and enforced disappearances.”

He said some of these abuses by state-employed thugs known  as “Tonton Macoutes” amounted to “crimes against humanity.”

“A cycle of impunity has prevailed for decades in Haiti, with   victims of abuses and their families denied justice for  way too long — now the opportunity has come for justice, truth  and reparations,” Zuniga said. Haitian authorities in the past have accused Duvalier and  his clan of plundering state coffers of several hundred million  dollars and hiding the money abroad. There have been moves in  Swiss courts to recover some of the money.    As Duvalier was questioned, a crowd of more than 100 noisy  supporters chanting “Long Live Duvalier!” demonstrated outside  the prosecutor’s office, setting up at least one burning  barricade. Police blocked off the building.

Earlier, when he was driven from his hotel under police  guard, some supporters shouting “Free Duvalier! Free Duvalier!”  chased the police vehicle taking him away, and some tried to  block its path with burning tires. The convoy evaded them.