Haitian judge says Duvalier must appear at human rights hearing

PORT-AU-PRINCE, (Reuters) – An appeals court judge ordered former Haitian President Jean-Claude ‘Baby Doc’ Duvalier to appear in court later this month on human rights allegations following a raucous hearing on the issue yesterday. Duvalier, 61, the country’s former “president for life,” returned to Haiti in January 2011 after 25 years of exile and was briefly detained on charges of corruption, theft and misappropriation of funds. A separate set of charges of crimes against humanity filed by people who charged they were victims of wrongful imprisonment and torture and who said their family members “disappeared” under Duvalier, were set aside by an investigating judge last year who ruled the statute of limitations had run out.