Tell Judge Gerges to give Toto Constant the Maximum Sentence

Synopsis

Send a letter to Judge Gerges.

Description

Talking Points for your letter to Judge Gerges 

• Constant has a long history of human rights abuses in his home country of Haiti—while leader of the notorious Haitian paramilitary death squad known as FRAPH (the Revolutionary Front for Haitian Advancement and Progress), Constant was responsible for massacres, gang-rapes, and other torture committed under his command.

• His record of human rights abuses has been confirmed by U.S. government documents received by CCR in the mid-1990s, which substantiated the broad and systematic pattern of FRAPH abuses.

• An independent report issued by the Organization of American States also found that FRAPH was directly responsible for severe repression, stating, “Armed men, frequently soldiers or FRAPH members, violently enter the house of a political militant to arrest him. When he is not there and the family cannot say where he is, the intruders turn against his wife, sister, daughter or cousin. Sexual abuse against Haitian women was carried out in various ways, but with a single aim: to create a climate of terror among people supporting Aristide.”

• With the instability that currently exists in Haiti due to a military coup that lasted until last year, it is extremely likely that he would be able to evade justice once in his home country. In fact, many FRAPH leaders were able to escape justice during the previous military regime.

• Dr. Robert McGuire, a respected scholar and chair of the international Affairs department at Trinity University in Washington, testified in a human rights case in New York that inadequate means of legal redress exist in Haiti and that, to his knowledge, no FRAPH members have to date been held accountable by the Haitian government.

• Toto Constant does not deserve leniency for his crimes of mortgage fraud and grand larceny. He should receive the maximum sentence for his crimes.