Swiss court thwarts Haitian ex-dictator's bid to recover account
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| Published on Thursday, May 31, 2007 |
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GENEVA, Switzerland (AFP): A Swiss court has issued an injunction preventing Haiti's former dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier from recovering some of the 7.6 million Swiss francs (4.6 million euros, 6.2 million dollars) held in frozen bank accounts here, lawyers said on Wednesday.
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Former Haitian President Jean-Claude Duvalier.
AFP PHOTO |
A court in Geneva granted the request for an extended freeze by two former Haitian opponents of "Baby Doc" Duvalier on one of the accounts in Switzerland.
The injunction came just three days before his family would have technically been able to retrieve the money after a two decade legal and political battle, said lawyer Marc Henzelin, who is acting for the Haitians.
The account at the largest Swiss bank, UBS, is held in the name of the Liechtenstein-based Brouilly foundation "which is used as a cover for the Duvalier family in Switzerland," he told journalists.
Henzelin was unable to say how much of the 7.6 million Swiss francs was held in that account.
Another account was believed to be located in the Swiss city of Lausanne, but he was unable to obtain enough details to mount a legal challenge there.
The two plantiffs are a Haitian priest and a taxi driver who were persecuted under the Duvalier regime.
Henzelin said they were trying to have a 1988 US court ruling, which ordered the Duvaliers to pay them 1.75 million dollars in damages, recognised in Switzerland.
The lawyers called on the Swiss government to extend an asset freeze on all Duvalier accounts in Switzerland, and to lift banking secrecy on the details of those accounts.
"Such action would allow the victims to assert their rights before the courts, in the absence of restitution to the state of Haiti," Henzelin and colleague Patrice Le Houelleur said in a statement.
A senior legal official at the Swiss foreign ministry said last week that the Duvalier family was set to recover the assets on June 3 after a government decree freezing them expires under legally imposed time limits.
The money has been caught up in legal wrangling since it was blocked in Switzerland at the request of Haiti's government after Duvalier was toppled in 1986.
Duvalier and his followers have been accused by Haiti's new government of siphoning off state funds during their reign.
Swiss law allows the government to freeze money up to a degree, but only magistrates can order prolonged sequestration, confiscation or seizure on legal grounds after full judicial proceedings.
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