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Alert

RSF and the Damocles Network urge President Aristide to give assurances to Judge Gassant and express hope that he will resume work on the Jean Dominique murder case

(RSF/IFEX) - On 17 April 2002, RSF and the Damocles Network welcomed the decision to reappoint Claudy Gassant as investigating judge in the Jean Dominique murder case but warned that it would be futile if the judge was obliged to work under the same conditions as earlier. The two organisations called on the authorities to give the judge guarantees that he will be able to carry out the investigation.




"Reassigning the case to him with the same problems of personal security and obstruction by the Senate and the police is not only pointless but would put his life in danger again," RSF Secretary-General Robert Ménard and Damocles Network Vice-President Jean-Pierre Getti said in a letter to Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

The two organisations also wrote to Judge Gassant, saying they hoped he would agree to take up the case again. "The courage and independence you showed during the 16 months in which you conducted the investigation, in the face of threats and obstacles, is proof to us that you will tackle the case diligently," they said, adding that he could once again count on their unfailing "support and efforts to help."

Ménard and Getti added however that if Gassant "regrettably" decided not to take up the case, he would still enjoy their "total support." The judge's decision is a "supremely personal one that should be respected by all," they said, noting the "obvious risks such a sensitive investigation still entailed."

The case is "extremely important for Haitian society," they added, and hoped that if the judge decided not to resume work on it he would explain why. It was important that the case not be put aside and they hoped the judge would make his decision within a "reasonable" amount of time.

In their letter to President Aristide, the two organisations said they were waiting for Gassant to be given guarantees on four points. First, that the authorities respect the rules for assigning the case "so that procedural errors cannot be used against the judge later." Second, that he be given enough funds for his security and to conduct the investigation. "Failure to do this when the case is so very delicate would effectively block the inquiry and once again put the judge's life in danger," they said.

RSF and the Damocles Network also called on Aristide, as head of the Fanmi Lavalas party, to ensure that the Senate's overwhelming Lavalas majority votes to lift the parliamentary immunity of Senator Dany Toussaint, the leading suspect in the case. "Once again, it is not a matter of the Senate deciding whether the senator is guilty or not, but simply allowing justice to run its course," they said. The two organisations stressed that not lifting Toussaint's immunity would prevent publication of the formal order ending the inquiry stage of the case and thus oblige the judge to remain officially in charge of the case, "at risk to his life."

Finally, Ménard and Getti called for an end to the obstruction of the investigation through the police's failure to execute arrest warrants issued against witnesses and suspects. They called for the arrest of Richard "Cha Cha" Salomon, regarded as Toussaint's right-hand man, and Franck Joseph, the senator's bodyguard, who have both refused to appear before the judge to date.

President Aristide renewed Judge Gassant's mandate on 1 April 2002, four months after it expired (on 3 January) and two days before the second anniversary of the 3 April 2000 murder of Dominique, who was head of Radio Haiti Inter. The next day, a presidential spokesman announced that the case would again be assigned to Gassant.