Strikes, violence overwhelm Haiti s crumbling judiciary
by Evens Sanon And DáNica Coto, The Associated Press
Posted Jan 28, 2021 8:57 am EDT
Last Updated Jan 28, 2021 at 8:58 am EDT
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti A warning from a well-known judge in Haiti crackled recently over the radio: “Don’t let them arrest you, because you don’t know when you will be released from prison.”
Haiti’s justice system has long been dysfunctional. But in recent years delayed judicial appointments, a spike in violence and protests by judges and court clerks demanding higher salaries and better working conditions have overwhelmed a system in which some 80% of inmates are being held with no trial amid a rise in what activists say are illegal and arbitrary preventive detentions.