Political

Haiti: Ribel Pierre Under House Arrest, Gaillot Dorsinvil Missing

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (defend.ht) – The former electoral adviser Ribel Pierre announced that he’s under house arrest and at his residence while the former president of the Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) Gaillot Dorsinvil bolted into nature.

The two men are forbidden from leaving Haiti and have restrictions on their movements. They have called their prosecution unlawful.

Ribel Pierre criticizes the ban level on him from departure saying that the detainment order was canceled by the court on August 22, 2011.

The former adviser claims he did not flee justice, but was going to visit his family on Saturday when he was intercepted at the Toussaint Louverture International Airport two days after a presidential decree dissolved the members of the council.

Pierre says he has always been available to answer questions of justice, however, he believes it is a political persecution that he is enduring, noting that the police constantly monitor his home.

"Without a court order or an investigation by a judge, they hold me hostage in my house. The policemen are posted at the entrance of my home preventing cars to pass through the main gate. Not only vehicles coming in but the vehicles cannot leave my home, when people visit me they are subject to numerous questions about their identity. In most cases, they are forced to leave one piece of identification to gain access to the house," says Ribel Pierre.

The former adviser who sat during the past elections which were marred with fraud said he has nothing to reproach himself about the organization of the last elections and said he will not be intimidated.

Whereabouts of Dorsinvil Unknown?

On the other hand, since also being intercepted at the airport and banned from leaving the country, former CEP President Gaillot Dorsinvil would have vanished into the wild.

Moreover, regarding the charges against Dorsinvil and Ribel Pierre, the Director General of the Control Unit Against Corruption (ULCC), Amos Durosier, said he had received no formal termination and is unable to investigate the case.

"If members of the CEP received bribes, let then the witnesses come to denounce them to allow the ULCC to conduct investigations," said Durosier.

Osner Fevry, the two counselors’ lawyer, said that "the police have become accomplice in the wrongful actions of Mr. Brunache standing guard in front of the house of a citizen in the form of surveillance. Only a judge could make that decision."

"If my clients continue to be subject to political persecution, they have no choice but to seek political asylum to seek refuge in another country", he adds.