26991: Hermantin(News)Supporters rally for medical release of Jean-Juste (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

Posted on Thu, Dec. 22, 2005

Supporters rally for medical release of Jean-Juste
Efforts to free Haitian political prisoner the Rev. Jean Juste have gone 
unrewarded, and now supporters fear he may be in need of medical treatment.

BY THERESA BRADLEY
tbradley@MiamiHerald.com

Fearing that he could be dying of cancer behind bars, family members of jailed 
Haitian priest and former Miami activist Gerárd Jean-Juste Wednesday launched a 
Christmas plea for his release -- this time on medical grounds.  ''This is no 
longer about his imprisonment as a prisoner of conscience,'' said Steven 
Forester of the advocacy group Haitian Women of Miami, which helped organize 
Wednesday's plea.
``This is now a matter of life, and as a humanitarian gesture, he should be 
allowed to come to Miami to get the medical attention that he needs.''
Jean-Juste, a well-known activist who once headed the most powerful Haitian 
rights organization in the United States, was arrested by Haitian authorities 
five months ago for alleged involvement in the kidnapping and murder of 
prominent Haitian journalist Jacques Roche. He has maintained his innocence, 
noting that he was in Miami at the time of Roche's death.  Jean-Juste's July 21 
arrest was his second following the February 2004 ouster of Haitian President 
Jean-Bertrand Aristide, whom Jean-Juste strongly backs.

Supporters and family members maintain that he is being held illegally, without 
ever having been charged.
The Haitian investigative judge involved in the case disputes that claim, but 
has yet to release the results of his investigation of the priest -- despite 
insisting to The Miami Herald in October that he would do so in a matter of 
weeks.
Earlier this month, Jean-Juste was examined in prison by a U.S. doctor, John 
Carroll, who found that his lymph nodes were enlarged and his white blood cell 
count high -- both possible signs of cancer or infectious disease, warranting 
more extensive tests, Carroll said. Haitian officials claimed that their own 
doctors have also examined Jean-Juste, and found no symptoms of cancer, the 
Associated Press reported.

But the priest's family insisted that he would never have allowed government 
doctors to examine him.
Ten of those relatives appeared at Wednesday's press conference in Little Haiti 
to plea for his release.
''Please, as Christians, help us in the holiday season to help us have our 
brother here,'' said Jean-Juste's sister Franciane Delica, 53, who Wednesday 
circulated a letter she'd written to President Bush, urging him to step up 
pressure on Haiti's U.S.-backed interim government to free her brother.
''If God forbid, anything should happen to Jerry, Haitian Americans of every 
political persuasion will all blame Bush,'' said Forester, of Haitian Women of 
Miami, referring to Jean-Juste by his nickname.
Supporters argue that Jean-Juste's detention is a ploy intended to neutralize 
him politically during Haiti's presidential elections, scheduled for Jan. 8.
Some of the priest's backers in Haiti had attempted to register him as a 
candidate, but the electoral council there refused their application.
In the U.S., Jean-Juste's continued detention has brought Haitian-Americans of 
all political stripes together -- including more than 1,000 who marched through 
downtown Miami in a Dec. 10 rally calling for his release.
''It's not that he's a member of the Lavalas party, or a supporter of Aristide. 
It's that he's someone who has fought for all human rights,'' said Marleine 
Bastien, executive director of Haitian Women of Miami.
``What we're asking is for the government to respect his rights, too.''
Last Friday, 42 members of the U.S. Congress signed a letter sent to President 
Bush, urging him to push for Jean-Juste's immediate release, to receive medical 
care.
Still, the priest's spirits have sagged to uncharacteristic lows in recent 
weeks, family members said.
''He's usually very high-spirited, but recently you could hear it in his 
voice,'' said niece Fayola Delica, who said she last spoke to her uncle by 
phone from prison several weeks ago. ``We just know that his condition is very 
poor.''
In the past, the U.S. State Department has urged Haitian officials to resolve 
Jean-Juste's case quickly -- but it has declined to make any more assertive 
push for his release, Jean-Juste supporters said.
Ira Kurzban, a longtime friend and Miami colleague of Jean-Juste, as well as 
Aristide's attorney, chided U.S. officials for that hands-off approach.
''If this were Cuba, if this were Venezuela, or any other country in the 
Western Hemisphere . . . they would call Jean-Juste what he is, which is a 
political prisoner,'' Kurzban said. ``I think people are fed