Newark, N.J. – Grassroots activist and political prisoner Bob Molière was freed on Thursday, April 20, 2006, after one year and two days of detention without charges in Haiti. On April 11, 2006, the Seton Hall University School of Law Immigration and Human Rights Clinic, joining forces with a trans-continental team of attorneys, filed a petition before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), challenging the imprisonment of Molière, a Haitian national. The petition cited violations of the Haitian Constitution and international human rights treaties, including the American Convention on Human Rights.

Last spring, the Interim Government of Haiti (“IGH”) arrested Molière, a grassroots activist, without a warrant, tortured him and held him without charges for nearly a year. During his unlawful detention, Molière endured a grossly overcrowded, unhygienic cell and inadequate food, water, ventilation and medical treatment. The complaint charged that in violation of Haiti’s Constitution and international law, the IGH imprisoned Molière—and hundreds of other poor Haitian civilians—solely for their political beliefs.

For over a year, the IGH failed to produce any evidence of criminal activity against Mr. Molière. He did not appear before a judge until four months after his arrest. It was not until last week that the investigating judge issued an ordinance, acknowledging the lack of charges against Molière and ordering his immediate release.

The Seton Hall Law clinic joined with the Haiti-based Bureau des Avocats Internationaux, and the Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti to file the complaint and successfully advocate for Molière’s release. Although Molière’s release is a positive sign for human rights in Haiti, the vast majority of prisoners arrested and imprisoned under similar circumstances attract little public attention. Most are poor and cannot afford a lawyer.

Professor Lori Nessel, director of Seton Hall Law School’s Immigration and Human Rights Clinic stated, “Although today is a bright day for justice and democracy in Haiti, we can not forget the hundreds of other poor, grassroots political prisoners still jailed in Haiti without charges and lacking judicial oversight. Sadly, the human rights abuses committed by the Interim Government of Haiti against Bob Molière are emblematic of the violations committed against hundreds of other poor Haitian civilians on account of their political beliefs.”

“If Haiti is to realize its dream of becoming a functioning democracy,” noted Patrick Hobbs, Dean of Seton Hall Law School stated, “it must start by fulfilling the promise of the rule of law to those in opposition and not just to those in power,”
“Throughout its period of control, the illegitimate government of Haiti has jailed hundreds of poor, grassroots Lavalas supporters without respect for Haitian legal procedures or in conformity with Constitutional protections,” said Brian Concannon, Esq., director of the Institute for Justice and Democracy and Haiti. “Many prisoners, like Bob Molière, have been kept in jail for years without any legal justification. The interim government has only a month left to do the right thing and release those it has persecuted.”

Molière was not able to vote in the second round of Haiti’s parliamentary elections held April 21, a day after his release, as the prison authorities failed to provide him with his national identification card in time to vote. He spent the day with his wife, six-year old daughter and four-month old son, who was born while Molière was still in prison and whom he first saw after his release.

The petition filed on Molière’s behalf alleged that:

• The Interim Government of Haiti violated Molière’s right to personal liberty under the Inter-American Convention on Human Rights by arresting him without a warrant and denying him meaningful judicial process;

• The IGH had not produced any evidence of criminal wrongdoing by Molière. Instead, the IGH questioned him repeatedly about his political opinions and associations, particularly as they relate to his support for the Famni Lavalas movement;

• The Haitian police subjected Molière to severe physical abuse that amounted to torture and cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment, including beatings, handcuffing him for days at a time, and stomping on his body;

• The detention of Molière at Haiti’s National Penitentiary in a grossly overcrowded, unhygienic cell without adequate food, water, ventilation and medical treatment—conditions described by a U.S. federal court as “reminiscent of a slave ship”—violated Molière’s right to humane treatment under the Inter-American Convention on Human Rights.

The Immigration and Human Rights Clinic of Seton Hall Law School, law.shu.edu, the only one if its kind in the state of New Jersey, works primarily on behalf of clients who have fled human rights abuses in their native countries and are seeking political asylum in the United States. Student attorneys develop and present cases in all areas of immigration and human rights: they make affirmative applications before immigration officers, attend court hearings in front of immigration judges and argue before the Board of Immigration Appeals. In addition to political asylum cases, students have filed habeas corpus petitions in federal district court in cases involving constitutional challenges to INS detention policies.

The Bureau des Avocats Internationaux (BAI) represents political prisoners and other victims of human rights violations in Haitian courts. The BAI's most successful case to date is the 2000 trial of the Raboteau massacre, which led to the convictions of 53 men, including the top military and paramilitary leaders of the 1991-1994 dictatorship. BAI was founded in 1995 and has its main office in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. It is managed by Haitian lawyer Mario Joseph.

The Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti (IJDH), www.ijdh.org, works with the people of Haiti in their non-violent struggle for the return and consolidation of constitutional democracy, justice and human rights, by distributing objective information on human rights conditions in Haiti, pursuing legal cases and cooperating with human rights and solidarity groups in Haiti and abroad.