Reprinted from Caribbean Net News
caribbeannetnews.com

Haiti won't accept convict from US
11-11-2006

MIAMI, USA (UPI): Haiti says it will not accept back on its shores a Haitian man stripped of his US citizenship after serving a lengthy prison sentence for drug dealing.

Haiti's consul general in Miami, Ralph Latortue, said convicted felon Lionel Jean-Baptiste cannot be sent back to the Caribbean nation because it is forbidden by the Haitian constitution, the Miami Herald reported Thursday.

"Once he renounced his Haitian citizenship, he no longer was a Haitian citizen and we cannot give him travel papers," said Latortue. "According to our constitution, he is not entitled to have a Haitian document. As soon as he opted for another nationality, he automatically lost the Haitian nationality."

Jean-Baptiste is the first naturalized US citizen ordered deported in almost 45 years.