Haiti – Justice : Excessive zeal or political-judiciary maneuver ?

Haiti Libre:

Haiti - Justice : Excessive zeal or political-judiciary maneuver ?

Me Danton Léger, the new Government Commissionerconvened former Prime Minister Laurent Lamothe and former Minister of Economy and Finance Wilson Laleau, to appear before him, respectively on 25 and 26 April 2016.

In a note of protest, professors from different faculties of the State University of Haiti, rivate universities of the country and members of civil society, express their deep concern “facing the judiciary lynching campaign and mediatic orchestrated by the Government Commissioner of Port-au-Prince, Me Danton Léger […] who convened for Monday, April 25 the former minister Wilson Laleau under the pretext of collecting information on cases in no way falling under a Government Commissioner skills […]”

These professors point out that the Government Commissioner “has no legal provisions for convening a former Minister who was acting within its powers unless it is seized by a debet order having acquired authority of the thing sovereign and definitively judged or for a criminal case and even there, in the absence of flagrante delicto, in accordance with Article 37 of the Criminal Instruction Code this falls within the jurisdiction of a magistrate duly seized […]” adding that otherwise “any offense committed by former Ministers in the exercise of their functions, the 1987 amended Constitution only gives the competence to the High Court of justice in Articles 186 and 188 to ask investigative actions and to put them in charge.”

For his part Me Pierre Michel Brunache part of the defense counsel of Laurent Lamothe [which is not under a ban to leave the country, unlike Wilson Laleau] also insists that his client is liable only to the High Court of Justice, recalling that the Government Commissioner can not put the public action against his client only with a debet order and that Laurent Lamothe who is currently abroad, will not be show to this convocation on Tuesday, April 26th.

Me Salim Succar, another lawyers of Laurent Lamothe, argues that “Me Danton Léger, knows very well that a prime minister as part of his duties is not justiciable in ordinary courts. Sections 186 and 188 of the Constitution provides for the impeachment procedure or instruction of a Prime Minister.”

What a debet order ?
The debet order can be defined as a legal decision of the Superior Court of Auditors and Administrative Disputes (CSC / CA) attesting that the management of handling public funds is irregular. Article 19 of the Decree of 23 November 2005 on the organization of the Superior Court of Auditors and Administrative Disputes says: “The decision which engages the financial responsibility of Accountant of law or fact either in noting embezzlement, misappropriation, theft or extortion either by finding acts harmful to the Treasury or to the financial interests of local governments and autonomous bodies takes the title of debet order.”

HL/ TB/ HaitiLibre

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