New York, April 28, 2003—A court of appeals in Port-Au-Prince, Haiti’s capital, is expected to announce a decision soon concerning the recent indictments of six men charged with murdering prominent journalist Jean Leópold Dominique, according to court officials.
On March 21, six men—all of whom have been imprisoned for more than two years in connection with the murder—were indicted for killing Dominique. But on April 3, Michèle Montas, Dominque’s widow, appealed the indictments, saying that the investigation into her husband’s killing is “incomplete,” and that the indictments “failed to charge the masterminds behind the murder.”
Dominique, Haiti’s most outspoken journalist and owner of Port-au-Prince–based Radio Haïti-Inter, was gunned down on April 3, 2000.
The Court of Appeals can either uphold the indictments or send them back to the judge asking him to do additional research into the case, a source close to the investigation told CPJ.
Meanwhile, Radio Haïti-Inter, which Montas began running after her husband’s death, remains closed after going off the air on February 25 because of violent threats.
