JURIST - Paper Chase: Haiti former PM Neptune freed from prison after two-year detention

[JURIST] Haitian authorities freed former Prime Minister Yvon Neptune from prison Thursday on a provisional release, though Neptune still faces charges that he calls "imaginary." Neptune has been detained for two years [JURIST report] since former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide [BBC profile] was ousted in 2004 [JURIST report] on accusations that he orchestrated a February 2004 massacre in La Scierie, though UN investigators have classified the incident as an armed conflict where both sides suffered casualties.

Neptune is one of hundreds of Aristide supporters jailed [JURIST report] in recent years by the US-backed interim government. Last year, head of the UN stabilization mission in Haiti [MINUSTAH website] Thierry Fagart called Neptune's detention illegal [JURIST report] under the Haitian constitution [text] because Neptune had not appeared before a judge. Reuters has more.

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