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Court ruling would give money to family of former dictator, but Swiss justice minister wants it to go to earthquake relief instead
A picture taken in March 1982 shows Jean-Claude Duvalier, alias Baby Doc, then life President of Haiti, in Port-au-Prince. AFP/GETTY IMAGES
Eliane Engeler
Geneva — Reuters Published on Wednesday, Feb. 03, 2010
Geneva — Reuters Published on Wednesday, Feb. 03, 2010
In an embarrassment to Switzerland's government, the country's top court said Wednesday that at least $4.6-million (U.S.) in Swiss bank accounts previously awarded to charities must be returned to the family of Haiti's former dictator Jean-Claude (Baby Doc) Duvalier.
The amount of money contested could feed more than a million Haitians for two weeks.
The court's decision was reached before the devastating earthquake that struck Haiti on Jan. 12, but only published Wednesday.
It prompted the Swiss government to issue an emergency decree to keep the money frozen in a Swiss bank until a new law can be passed allowing it to be donated to aid groups working in Haiti.
“This is a public relations disaster for Switzerland,” said Mark Pieth, a Swiss professor with a long résumé in international corruption cases such as the United Nations oil-for-food scandal.
In the decision, the Federal Supreme Court reversed a lower court's ruling that the money should have gone to aid groups working in the impoverished country because the statute of limitations on any crimes committed by the Duvalier clan would have expired in 2001.
Delays are common in Switzerland between court verdicts and their public announcements, but the release of the decision could not have come at a worse time. Beyond depriving Haiti's relief efforts of additional money, the ruling also strikes a blow at Switzerland's long-standing efforts to shed its image as an investment haven for the world's dictators.
“We assume that this money doesn't belong to the Duvalier family,” said Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf, the Swiss Justice Minister. “We've blocked the money again today to prevent that it goes somewhere that it shouldn't for political reasons. We really hope that this money finally goes back to the country.”
Many Haitians accuse Mr. Duvalier and his entourage of robbing millions from public funds before he was ousted in 1986. Mr. Duvalier is believed to be living in exile in France and has always denied wrongdoing.
The decision cannot be appealed, but the Swiss Foreign Ministry said it would try to keep the money from being withdrawn while it works on a better national law for dealing with assets of “criminal origin.” It said the amount of money actually totalled $5.7-million, though the reason for the discrepancy was unclear.
The government “wants to avoid the Swiss financial centre serving as a haven for illegally acquired assets,” it said in a statement, adding that a new law working retroactively could be ready this month. Ms. Widmer-Schlumpf was less optimistic, but said the law could come into effect as early as 2011.
Switzerland has traditionally been a favourite location for potentate money because of its banking secrecy rules. But reforms over the last two decades have made it harder to hide money in Switzerland, and the country has become a world leader in returning cash.
Haiti made its first request for the money in 1986, shortly after Mr. Duvalier's ouster.
But it has been frozen ever since because Switzerland would not give it back while the Haitian government wasn't pursuing Mr. Duvalier under its own justice system. As a way out, the Swiss government had proposed giving the money to aid groups working in Haiti.
“At a time when everyone tries to help Haiti, issuing a decision that the money belongs to the dictator's family because of the statute of limitations is very clumsy,” Prof. Pieth said. “You have a head of state with a secret army that tortures people, and at the same time he empties the state treasury. The people cannot defend themselves. It's robbing from the people, and this aspect has to be addressed by the court.”
Source: theglobeandmailtags: baby doc, claude duvalier, earthquake, haiti, switzerland
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