The business law specialist and professor at the State University of Haiti, Me Ikenson Edumé from Petit Goâve, exposed the difficulties related to the preparation of the PetroCaribe trial because of the way the Haitian judicial system works, lack of human, economic, technical and legislative resources and formulated a series of recommendations on the preconditions for holding such a trial in Haiti.

According to Me Ikenson Edumé, there is a legislative vacuum with regard to the investigation and trial of economic and financial crimes in Haiti. According to him, it is necessary to create, with the help of a new special law :

a) Specialized courts in economic and financial matters;

b) A training college to replace the investigating judge;

c) A special collegiate tribunal with national jurisdiction for the trial of the PetroCaribe Trial;

d) A financial center at all levels of the five major courts of the Republic's courts of appeal;

e) A national financial prosecutor's office, whose role will be to track the great economic and financial crime. This Prosecutor's Office will be established in the 5 courts of the Courts of Appeal with specialized magistrates.

In addition, the Business Law Specialist made several other recommendations including:

• The PetroCaribe Trial must be a State trial beyond any popular expectation to prevent it from becoming a dialogue of the deaf;

• The completion of this trial will take time. Provision must be made for an acceptable period of time for the preparation of the conditions of the trial;

• There will need to be evidence of guaranteeing of the objectivity at the level of justice;

• Justice should be sovereign in this case. It will be up to the Dean to appoint the judges in charge of the investigation and the Government Commissioner to choose the magistrates of the Public Prosecutor's Office responsible for the investigation and prosecution of the offenses.

• The major handicap for the PetroCaribe trial is the absence of specialized economic and financial courts. It will require a special law for the creation of such jurisdictions.

• A series of specialized or even specific training lasting 6 months will have to be carried out for judges and prosecutors who will be called upon to handle the PetroCaribe file;

• It will be necessary to call on specialized magistrates initiated to handle cases of economic and financial crimes.

One wonders if these prerequisites are not met, when will such a trial take place ? Or if the holding of the PetroCaribe trial is not a chimera ?

HL/ HaitiLibre / Guyto Mathieu (Correspondant Petit-Goâve)