Haitian political prisoner Rene Civil released!
 
Date: Fri, 14 Dec 2007 17:25:18 -0600 (CST)

http://www.haitisolidarity.net/article.php?id=213

Haitian political prisoner Rene Civil released!

Haitian political prisoner Rene Civil had a court appearance yesterday -
December 13th - where he was released from prison after being held on phony
charges for 16 months. His attorney, Mario Joseph, had expressed optimism
about the outcome of the hearing. Mr. Civil has been detained in notoriously
bad conditions in an isolated jail far from his family after a transfer from
the main penitentiary in Port-au-Prince. His release is a tremendous victory
for Haiti's grassroots movement which has maintained a powerful, unrelenting
and visible mobilization for the release of all Haiti's political prisoners.

Rene Civil is a member of Fanmi Lavalas, and a leader of Jeunesse Pouvoir
Populaire or JPP (Youth/People's Power), a youth movement founded after the
1991-94 coup when President Aristide returned to Haiti. The JPP organized
young people in the struggle for democracy, mainly in the poor neighborhoods
of Port-au-Prince. The JPP provided financial support to encourage the youth
to pursue their studies in school or learn a trade, and set up centers where
young people could get a hot meal and political education.

Two days before his arrest in August 2006, Rene Civil addressed the 3rd
Solidarity Encounter with the Haitian People, at the Aristide Foundation in
Port-au-Prince. He denounced the system "which causes economic, political,
military and social war on the people of the world", and which is preventing
poor nations like Haiti from exercising their independence. "The people of
Haiti," he said, "who believe in freedom, who have tasted freedom, will
never accept this criminal, slaving system."

A Haiti Action Committee-initiated delegation was able to visit Mr. Civil in
late July 2007 in the jail where he was housed over an hour's drive from
Port-au-Prince. We saw terrible jail conditions which included lack of clean
water, adequate food, sanitation, and health care. Mr. Civil was in poor
health, but strong spirits. A member of the delegation, Professor Akinyele
Umoja of Malcolm X Grassroots Organization, shared news of political
prisoners in the United States with him, and brought greetings from the San
Francisco Black Panther 8. Mr. Civil returned the greeting, and sent a
message of solidarity to people of Afrikan descent in the US. He expressed
his concern for the people of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast.

Haiti Action Committee sends our solidarity and warmest regards to Rene
Civil and his family. Your freedom gives a boost to the work to free all
Haiti's political prisoners.