Haitian Lawman Released

A magistrate in Haiti has freed one of the island nation’s most respected police officials from jail and will rule today whether to drop all charges of coup plotting and murder against former chief investigator Mario Andresol.

The 40-year-old deputy commissioner--considered a Haitian-style Frank Serpico by U.S. officials who trained the Haitian National Police force--left for home in the capital, Port-au-Prince, on Saturday. That was nearly three weeks after a lower-court judge had ruled his July 31 arrest “illegal and arbitrary” and ordered his immediate release.

Diplomatic observers in Haiti say the case underscores the sorry state of the approximately 3,000-member police force. It was created by the U.S. Justice Department with more than $50 million in U.S. funds after Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide disbanded the country’s brutal army.

The observers say that Aristide, who was returned to power in 1994 by an American intervention against the military dictatorship that overthrew him, has been politicizing the police. They and police sources say independent-minded law enforcement officials such as Andresol have been replaced in key positions by loyalists from Aristide’s Lavalas Family party since the former Roman Catholic priest was elected to a second term in November.

Several nations, including the U.S., reportedly pressured Aristide’s government to release Andresol, who has flatly denied the charges that he helped mastermind a recent coup attempt.

Andresol and his lawyer, Osner Fevry, declined to comment Sunday, citing an agreement not to speak publicly until Magistrate Josias Agnant rules today. Fevry said he plans to hold a news conference with Andresol in Port-au-Prince on Tuesday.

Andresol has investigated the prominent political killings that have plagued Haiti in recent years, has jailed Colombian drug traffickers and has prosecuted Haitian police who protected them. In earlier interviews, he said he has been targeted for death numerous times by enemies inside and outside the force.

Andresol was transferred from his post as chief of investigations in March, on the same day Aristide named a new police chief. International observers have described the new chief as, variously, the president’s former caretaker and his driver.

Prosecutors have asserted that Andresol helped mastermind a series of attacks on police targets July 28 that the government calls a coup attempt by former army officers backed by Haiti’s political opposition. Five policemen died in the attacks.

The opposition denies that, asserting instead that the daylong assaults were staged by Aristide’s supporters to justify a political and police purge. At least 40 opposition members were arrested in the aftermath. All but five have been released.