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| |  | | Joseph Michel François | | | context : | Haiti  | | judgement place : | Haiti | | status : | Sentenced | | particulars : | In 2000, convicted in absentia for his role in the Raboteau Massacre | | position : | Lieutenant Colonel |
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| | | | Haiti’s Raboteau Massacre trial was a major development in international law in 2000. The case was a milestone in the international fight against impunity for large-scale human rights violations. The core of the prosecution’s case was eyewitness testimony.
The trial concluded on November 9, 2000 when, after six weeks of trial and five years of pre-trial proceedings, a jury in the Haitian city of Gonaïves convicted sixteen former soldiers and paramilitaries for participating in the April 1994 Raboteau Massacre. Twelve of these were convicted for premeditated murder and received the mandatory sentence of forced labour for life. The other four received sentences from four to nine years. A week later, the judge convicted thirty-seven more defendants in absentia, including the entire military high command and the heads of the paramilitary FRAPH (Front Révolutionnaire pour l’Avancement et le Progrès d’Haïti). The in absentia defendants all received the mandatory life imprisonment, but they are entitled to a new trial if they return to Haiti. The case was based on command responsibility and accomplice theories.
The Raboteau case marked a sharp break with a long tradition of impunity in Haiti. The case was the most complex in the country’s history, and was the first broad prosecution of commanders for human rights violations.
On 3 May 2005, the convictions of at least 15 of the Raboteau defendants that took place on November 9, 2000 were overturned in one fell swoop by Haiti's Supreme Court in a murky ruling. But the annulment of the convictions appeared to apply only to those convicted at the jury trial, and not to the other self-exiled defendants convicted in absentia, such as paramilitary leader Emmanuel Constant, and the three top leaders of the military dictatorship, Raoul Cédras, Philippe Biamby and Michel François. | |    | |  |  | | nationality : | | | Haiti | | | date of birth : | | | 08.05.1957 | | | last time seen : | | | San Pedro Sula, Honduras | | | period of charges : | | | 09.1991 - 09.1994 | | | judgement period : | | | 10.2000 - 16.11.2000 | | | charges : | | | Crimes against humanity
Torture | | | profile last modified : | | | 15.02.2006 |
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