Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR): Notorious Haitian Human Rights Abuser To Stand Trial For Mortgage Fraud In New York
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 3, 2008
11:28 AM
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CONTACT: Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR)
Ateqah Khaki or David Lerner, Riptide Communications, 212-260-5000
On site contact: Chaneen Cummings, 917-509-09341 |
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Notorious Haitian Human Rights Abuser To Stand Trial For Mortgage Fraud In New York
Scores of Activists to Rally in Front of State Supreme Court on the First Day of Trial for Emmanuel “Toto” Constant
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NEW YORK - July 3 - The Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) and International Support Haiti Network (ISHN) will be joined by members of the New York City Council to rally outside of New York’s Supreme Court in Brooklyn on the first day of Haitian former paramilitary leader Emmanuel “Toto” Constant’s rescheduled trial for grand larceny and mortgage fraud.
According to the U.S. State Department’s own reports, as the leader of the paramilitary group, Front for the Advancement and Progress of Haiti (FRAPH), Constant was responsible for murder, rape, and other torture of thousands of Haitians in the early 1990’s. Activists say that while Constant’s trial for mortgage fraud is not directly linked to his sordid history as a human rights abuser, the trial is an opportunity for Constant to be held publicly accountable for his economic crimes against the people of New York. Last spring, after receiving information from Haitian and U.S. human rights attorneys and activists about Constant’s violent leadership of FRAPH, the judge presiding in the case set aside a plea bargain deal over the objections of the Department of Homeland Security, which was urging Constant’s immediate deportation to Haiti.
Constant fled Haiti to the U.S. in 1994 when a Haitian court issued a warrant for his arrest for murder and torture. From 1996 until his arrest for mortgage fraud in 2006, Constant lived freely in Queens, despite international outcry and extradition requests from Haiti for his crimes against humanity. In 2006, a U.S. federal court issued a $19 million default judgment in a case brought by CCR and the Center for Justice and Accountability on behalf of three women subjected to gang rape and attempted extrajudicial killing.
WHO
Jennie Green, Center for Constitutional Rights
Ray Laforest and Kim Ives, International Support Haiti Network
Farah Tanis, Dwa Fanm
Danye Guerrier, Coalition of Women’s Rights Groups in Haiti
Ninaj Raoul, Haitian Women for Haitian Refugees
WHAT
Rally for Justice: First Day of Toto Constant Trial for Mortgage Fraud
WHERE
Across from the Supreme Court of New York in downtown Brooklyn
320 Jay St. (at Johnson St.), Brooklyn, NY
WHEN
Tuesday, July 8, 8:30-9:00am
The Center for Constitutional Rights is dedicated to advancing and protecting the rights guaranteed by the United States Constitution and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Founded in 1966 by attorneys who represented civil rights movements in the South, CCR is a non-profit legal and educational organization committed to the creative use of law as a positive force for social change.
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