Ex-Aristide security chief appears briefly in Miami court
Tuesday, April 6, 2004
MIAMI, USA (AFP): A former security chief of
Haitian ex-president Jean Bertrand Aristide appeared briefly in a Miami court
Monday, when his arraignment on drug trafficking charges was set for April 26.
Oriel Jean, 39, who was dressed in khaki prison garb, sat silently during the
short proceedings. "I will defend him
vigorously," Jean's attorney David Raben told AFP after Judge Patrick White
set the arraignment date to April 26. Jean,
whose US visa had been cancelled in 2002 for his alleged links to drug
trafficking, was Aristide's security chief from 2001 to June 2003.
He was arrested March 10 in Toronto and was extradited to the United States,
accused of conspiring to illegally sell cocaine.
The US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has investigated alleged ties
between Haitian and Colombian drug traffickers. Haiti is believed to be a
major transit point for illegal drugs smuggled to the United States.
On February 25, just before Aristide left power and fled Haiti, a known
Haitian drug trafficker, Beaudoin "Jacques" Ketant, accused the former
president in a Florida court of being a drug kingpin and turning the country
into a drug-trafficking state. Aristide's
Miami attorney Ira Kurzban rejected the allegation as "just another piece of
the effort to politically assassinate president Aristide."
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