In July of 2005, returning from a protest against the coup d’état and the occupation of Haiti in front of the Brazilian embassy in Miami, Father Gerard Jean Juste was surprised at the airport in Port-au-Prince: accused of “conspiring against the government,” he was detained by the National Police in the Haitian capital.

Once released from custody, just a few days afterward he was imprisoned again, on the 21st. This time, he was accused of killing a journalist. The assassination occurred while Jean Juste was still in Miami, discarding any possibility of the continuation of the process. The organization Human Rights First initiated a campaign for the immediate liberation of Jean Juste, collecting 1,053 signatures.

The reason that Juste was detained is connected to his work as an activist for human rights and an opposer of the political-military occupation idealized through the U.S. and France and administered by Brasil since February of 2004. Juste is one of the principal supporters of Lavalas, the party of the deposed President Jean Bertrand Aristide.

Also, he demonstrated interest in being nominated for the elections which will be realized on February 7th. During the time he is imprisoned this cannot occur. The situation of Jean Juste turned more complicated after just a few weeks, when doctors from the United States diagnosed him with leukemia after a blood test. Beyond Father Juste, there are hundreds of men and women political prisoners in Haiti. According to the data from Centro de Justiça Global (Center for Global Justice), only 2% of the thousand prisoners in the National Penitentiary of Port-au-Prince were accused of a crime. Raise your voice in protest against the imprisonment of Father Jean Juste, demanding his liberation and release.

Ambassador Celso Amorim, Minister of External Relations for Brazil. http://www.mre.gov.br/ingles/structure/foreing_relations/organizational/minister_foreign.asp (The misspelling of “foreing” is the correct URL) President of Haiti Boniface Alexandre http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boniface_Alexandre Henri Dorleans, minister of Justice of Haiti 19 Ave. Charles Sumner