Swiss Court Orders Charities Cannot Receive Haitian Dictator’s Money

According to PhilanthropyToday and the WashingtonPost, the Swiss high court published an opinion on Wednesday requiring that$4.6 million previously committed to charities by the Swiss government, bereturned to the family of former Haitian dictator Jean-Claude “BabyDoc” Duvalier.  The former dictatoris thought to have stolen millions in public funds before fleeing in exile in1986.  The $4.6 million is a portion ofthe millions that Haiti alleges Duvalier stole during his time in power.  

The Haitian government firstrequested the return of the money to Haiti in 1986; however, Swiss law onlypermits the return of funds when asked for by a national government that ispursuing its own criminal investigation (Haiti was not pursuing such aninvestigation against Duvalier at that time). The funds have been frozen since 1986 and the Swiss government had proposedgiving them to aid groups working in Haiti.

The high court’s decisionoverturned a recent lower court ruling permitting the release of the funds toaid organizations working in Haiti, in accordance with the Swiss government’sproposal.  The high court stated thatwhile it was not happy about the decision, its hands were legally tied because thelower court’s ruling was barred by the statute of limitations, which hadexpired on Duvalier’s crimes.

The high court reached its decisionon January 12, prior to the devastating earthquake, but the opinion was notreported until this week.  The Swissgovernment is deeply concerned about the court’s decision and has issued anemergency decree freezing the return of any funds to Duvalier pending passageof a law to undo the high court’s ruling.

SS