thestar.com
Conspiracy Theory

I've stayed away from the Haiti story even though there were a lot of drug war implications because the subject has been so well covered. However, this one little vignette has been sticking in my craw all week and it seems to me to have been under-reported.

The initial arrest of Aristide's security chief Oriel Jean at his Toronto immigration hearing on a warrant from the US DEA, was well covered by the Canadian press.

Jean, who was arrested at Pearson airport last Wednesday with his wife Bettina for his alleged involvement in war crimes and drug trafficking, is now in the hands of the Mounties. He is to appear in the Superior Court of Justice this morning on the extradition matter.

Joe Kilmer, a spokesperson in the Miami office of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, said Jean is being charged with a single count of conspiracy to smuggle cocaine into the United States relating to activities that took place from 1999 to 2003.

"Mr. Jean has been provisionally arrested at the request of the U.S. authorities under the Extradition Act," said Canadian justice spokesperson Patrick Charette. "He is wanted in the U.S. for drug-related charges, conspiracy to import cocaine."

Excuse me, but since when does Canada - haven for hundreds of Vietnam War era conscientious objectors - extradite political refugees? And a single count of conspiracy? The conspiracy ploy is the single most bogus charge ever invented by prohibitionists. So do you suppose they browbeat some hapless Haitian into making a statement against him? Even if the statement is false it could take the length of his potential sentence to prove it.

Jean's lawyer, Guidy Mamann, who learned that Jean had been taken out of his segregated cell and interviewed by a Drug Enforcement Administration officer twice without the presence of a lawyer said, "The presence of the D.E.A. officer over the weekend and the fact that we were denied access to our client for two solid days, something stinks."

The Canadian justice department held Jean under provisional arrest, which allows officials to hold him for 60 days while U.S. authorities submit their formal request for extradition. However, according to a report in today's Jamaica Observer, it didn't take that long. Oriel Jean has now been extradited from Toronto.

Jean's Toronto lawyer, Guidy Mamman, confirmed to AFP that Jean had been sent to the United States, but declined to comment further.

US authorities in Miami were expected to take on Jean's case.

...Mamman said on Monday that his client had once been asked by the US Drug Enforcement Administration to provide details on known drug traffickers.

He was warned he could be arrested and sent the United States to face charges if he refused, Mamman said. The US arrest warrant issued this week charged Jean with conspiracy and trafficking in cocaine.

We have seen no coverage of this story in the US press. Now that Mr. Jean is in this country, we think someone should be watching this story before this poor man gets 'disappeared' by our government agents.

[link thanks to Tim Meehan]