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Haiti jails ex-Miami priest in journalist's kidnap-murder

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - Haitian authorities said Tuesday that they asked a judge to open a formal investigation of a Roman Catholic priest who has been accused of involvement in the slaying of a well-known journalist and labeled a "prisoner of conscience" by Amnesty International.

The Rev. Gerard Jean-Juste, a prominent figure in the party of ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide and a possible presidential candidate, will be investigated for charges that include weapons possession, kidnapping and murder, chief government prosecutor Audain Daniel said.

He was arrested Thursday as he tried to attend the funeral of the journalist, Jacques Roche, and was mobbed by protesters who accused the priest of involvement in the slaying. Police said he was detained because of the "public clamor" for his arrest by the angry demonstrators.

The priest, who was in the United States when Roche was kidnapped in Port-au-Prince on July 10, has denied any connection to the abduction and slaying.

Jean-Juste was a prominent leader of the large Haitian community in Miami during the Duvalier reigns in Haiti. He returned to his homeland in the early 1990s.

Under Haitian law, a suspect must be detained within 48 hours of arrest but the government has ignored that requirement in the case of Jean-Juste and dozens of other supporters of Aristide, who was ousted after a violent rebellion in 2004.

Amnesty International said Monday that Jean-Juste was detained "solely because he has peacefully exercised his right to freedom of expression," and should be considered a prisoner of conscience.

"He risks spending a long time in custody awaiting trial on apparently trumped-up charges," the international human rights group said.

Interim Prime Minister Gerard Latortue described Jean-Juste's appearance at the Roche funeral "a provocation," and said authorities had "a huge file against him."

The priest, who has said he would consider running for president in fall elections if he were asked to by the Lavalas party, has been detained in the capital's National Penitentiary, where his American lawyer Bill Quigley said he was being held in isolation.

No one, including Jean-Juste's bishop, has been allowed to come in contact with him since Saturday, Quigley said.

In Cite Soleil, a huge slum at the edge of the capital and an Aristide stronghold, protesters called for the priest's release at a demonstration Tuesday. To the chants of "Free Jean-Juste," about 200 youths, accompanied by armed gang members, marched past a heavily guarded U.N. position.

Haiti's U.S.-backed interim government has accused Jean-Juste in the past of inciting violence and hiding gunmen loyal to Aristide. In October, the government jailed him for seven weeks before a judge ordered him released amid an international outcry.

Though some moderate figures of the Lavalas Family have recently announced their intention to run in the fall elections, the party's leadership has made the release of all their prisoners a mandatory condition to join the electoral process.

[Last modified July 27, 2005, 01:06:11]