Haitian lawyer for jailed US missionaries fired

[Desperadoe]

Source: Guardian

Associated Press Writers= PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — The Haitian lawyer for 10 U.S. Baptists charged with child kidnapping tried to bribe the missionaries' way out of jail and has been fired, the attorney who hired him said Saturday night.

The Haitian lawyer, Edwin Coq, denied the allegation. He said the $60,000 he requested from the Americans' families was his fee.

Jorge Puello, the attorney in the neighboring Dominican Republic retained by relatives of the 10 American missionaries after their arrest last week, told The Associated Press that he fired Coq on Friday night. He had hired Coq to represent the detainees at Haitian legal proceedings.

Coq orchestrated "some kind of extortion with government officials" that would have led to the release of nine of the 10 missionaries, Puello charged.

"He had some people inside the court that asked him for money, and he was part of this scheme," Puello said.


Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/feedarticle/8934331

[BrklynLiberal]

1. Ont he news last night, they weresaying that the lawyer could not speak English and it was

"difficult" for him to communicate with his clients...

This has all the makings of a National Lampoon movie.

[Matariki]

2. Hate to say this, but that's fairly typical of Haiti's justice system.

Or so I've heard from people with direct experience of it.

[EFerrari]

6. We really have no moral high ground from which to call out Haiti for corruption.

It was our corrupt government that has fostered corruption in Haiti for the last hundred years. :(

[dipsydoodle]

10. ditto

.

[Matariki]

14. I wasn't 'calling them out'

It's unfortunately true about their legal system though. I know people who have been directly involved with Haiti's legal system. Those 'missionaries' are going to have a real wake up call - they're not in Kansas anymore. They went there with the naive arrogance that's typical of a certain segment of Americans who approach the rest of the world as a sort of theme park where anything bad that happens to them will be fixed because they're American.

I'm acutely aware of what US policy has done to Haiti.

[EFerrari]

16. That's so true about the theme park attitude. n/t

[marshall]

17. It's not considered corruption to some people

They call it "expedite fees".

[Glidescube2]

3. And the haitians are thinking about these rightwingers...

Darn those illegals, why don't they speak the language when the get here! LOL


the justice is all too poetic

[Kurska]

7. Justice would be a court date, a trial, guilty or not guilt and if guilty a sentence.

Frankly, I don't find corruption poetic at all.

[Judi Lynn]

4. They could have saved themselves this trouble by forgetting their scheme to kidnap these kids,

take them out of the country illegally without complying with the necessary legal steps, lying to their relatives about where and how the students would be, and advertising for adoption while never mentioning it to the guardians of the children, to whom they lied when they told them they could come and visit their little family members, since they wouldn't even be there, at the facility they didn't actually have.

Damned wretched behavior by these agents of the almighty.

http://lh3.ggpht.com.nyud.net:8090/_APjgPmP_12w/Skiti_RrcSI/AAAAAAAAFMI/XIAEUkWIQvY/050823jthom_first_vision_meatballs_t.jpg

[No Elephants]

5. I assume the next step is requesting recusal by the judges who asked for the money???

[PaulaFarrell]

8. A different take

no idea which is true

Missionaries turn on their leader over 'kidnapping' of Haiti children
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/missionaries-turn-on-their-leader-over-kidnapping-of-haiti-children-1890910.html

The leader of the Baptist missionaries from Idaho charged with trying to remove 33 Haitian children from the country illegally knew many of the so-called "orphans" still had living parents or other close relatives but tried to move them over the border anyway, her own lawyer, Edwin Coq, has claimed.


Laura Silsby, among the 10 Americans now in custody in Port-au-Prince, where they are accused of "child kidnapping and criminal association," deliberately ignored the lack of correct paperwork to enable her to bring the youngsters into the Dominican Republic legally, he said.

Ms Silsby's companions are well-meaning people caught up in a scheme they did not understand, he went on. "They were naïve," he said of the nine. "They had no idea what was going on and they did not know that they needed official papers to cross the border. But Silsby did."

"I'm going to do everything I can to get the other nine out," Mr Coq, who has apparently quarrelled with Ms Silsby, told reporters in Haiti. "I hope they will be released today."

....

[EFerrari]

9. That's simply not credible.

How can any rational adult believe that you don't need documentation to move children across international borders?

[CanonRay]

12. Key words: "rational adult"

They people checked their rationality at the church door.

[EFerrari]

15. Well, you have a good point there, Ray.

lol

[Peace Patriot]

13. Yup, this story makes sense to me. Naive, unquestioning missionaries, devious church leaders.

I saw a photo of this group of missionaries and some of them looked like high schoolers--very young and naive looking. And the lawyer situation sounds like a conflict of interest. Coq chose to represent the naive missionaries, whose interests conflict with the leader of the group and the church officials who designed this kidnapping. And you have to wonder about this lawyer in the Dominican Republic. The bribery thing sounds like a red herring--a wild charge being used as an excuse to fire Coq, who may well have been doing the right thing in trying to get the charges against the 9 dismissed, and found himself in conflict with the leader and the church officials. It also sounds to me like a confused situation, as to the families of the 9 perhaps being intimidated or overly-influenced by the church officials, and possibly without sufficient power to act in the interest of the 9 missionaries. It must be difficult for them, with family members in jail in another country (not to mention a country that has suffered a horrendous disaster), and having the church officials who put their family members in jeopardy as the "middle man" in this situation.

[old mark]

11. Well, I hope the lawyer got his money up front and in cash....there seems

to be some problem with unpaid bills with these people.


mark