The Port-au-Prince Bar Association is dismayed by the arrest and detention of the Secretary General of the Port-au-Prince Bar Association, Mr. Robinson Pierre-Louis, at the Delmas 33 police station by the Central Directorate of the Judicial Police, without the prior request of the President of the Port-au-Prince Bar Association. In a note of protest made public this Saturday, July 23, 2022, the Port-au-Prince Bar Association demands the immediate release of Robinson Pierre-Louis and asks the prosecuting authorities to comply with the conventions, laws, and regulations that guarantee the free exercise of the legal profession.
The Council of the Bar is extremely concerned by this situation where the fundamental rights of a lawyer, moreover the Secretary General of the Council of the Bar, are openly flouted, thus throwing opprobrium on the entire corporation.
The council is also perplexed by the celerity with which the police authorities have conducted any investigation until the arrest of Robinson Pierre-Louis, while the investigation into the assassination of President Monferrier Dorval continues to stagnate in the drawers of the authorities.
According to the Bar Association, a delegation of the Bar Association led by the President of the Bar, Marie Suzy LEGROS, went to the premises of the financial and economic affairs unit to see that Robinson Pierre-Louis was indeed being held by agents of the Central Directorate of the Judicial Police.
Mr. Robinson Pierre-Louis, Secretary General of the Port-au-Prince Bar Association and also a member of the cabinet of the Minister of Justice, was accused by the government commissioner of Port-de-Paix, Mr. Michelet Virgile, in the liberation of two people who had been apprehended for their involvement in arms and ammunition trafficking.