REGIONAL NEWS

 

 

SPLIT DECISION IN HAITI PRISON MASSACRE TRIAL

Eight of the 14 law enforcement officers tried for a 2010 prison massacre that left at least 10 prisoners dead were on Thursday found guilty.

The officers will spend between 2 and 13 years behind bars with hard labour for murder, attempted murder and other crimes committed a week after the 7.0-magnitude earthquake struck.

Those convicted include former Les Cayes prison warden, Sylvestre Larack, and the city’s riot police chief, Olritch Beaubrun, who was tried in absentia. Six officers were cleared by the court.

“The decision of the judge is his version of the truth,” Judge Ezekiel Vaval said in delivering the ruling that came two years to the day after the uprising. “There are other versions that exist but this is mine. And that is the law.”

He earlier told journalists he had received death threats during the three-month trial.

He said 20 other officers, who fled to evade prosecution will be tried in abstentia and have an extra year added to any sentence they may receive.

Lead prosecutor Jean-Marie Salomon said the verdict was “not satisfying”, while defense attorney Jean-Eugene Pierre-Louis said he planned to appeal to ruling.

“I have the right to be dissatisfied with the convictions,” Pierre-Louis said, “But the fact that we had a verdict at all is a big deal for Haiti.”

The verdict was greeted with shouts of joy by supporters of the defendants and the prosecution. Human rights activists said the outcome was a rare victory in the fight against impunity.

An independent commission, formed by the Haitian government and the UN Mission in Haiti, had found that the officers opened fire on unarmed inmates deliberately and without justification.