By: Kim Ives - Haïti Liberté

The well-known Lavalas activist leader René Civil will go to trial on Thursday, Dec. 13, to answer charges of forgery, accessory to theft, and the illegal possession of a firearm.

Haitian police arrested Civil and three other men - Julmiste Widlin, Smith Lappe and Fred Jean Louis - on the night of Aug. 25, 2006 for the supposed theft of a vehicle belonging to the Haitian government. The arrest was conducted illegally, without a warrant and after the hours (6 a.m. to 6 p.m.) when a warranted arrest is supposed to be made.

Civil purchased the vehicle - a green Mitsubishi L200 pick-up - in 2001 for $17,000 and had registered it with the police. During the 2004-2006 coup d'etat when Civil took exile in the Dominican Republic, Haitian police had seized the vehicle and used it for their own purposes. Civil had only recently reclaimed the truck before his arrest.

René Civil was a leader of Popular Power Youth (JPP), a popular organization founded after President Jean-Bertrand Aristide returned to Haiti following the 1991 to 1994 coup d'etat against his government.

"Liberty or death!" Civil declared on leaving his arraignment in August 2006. " I have been arrested unjustly with false accusations because I defend democracy, the return of President Aristide, and the reintegration of militants into public service."

Civil was arrested on May 12, 2006 at the border when attempting to cross into Haiti from the Dominican Republic to attend the May 14, 2006 inauguration of President Rene Preval. He was held in jail for two weeks on other trumped-up charges which were dismissed on August 14, 2006, just two weeks before he was arrested again.

Civil's lawyers called his arrest "a political act and an abuse of power." Civil will be represented on Thursday by Mario Joseph of the Bureau of International Lawyers (BAI). Mr. Joseph is optimistic that the charges against his client will be dismissed.

Civil's health has deteriorated dramatically in the squalid conditions of the National Penitentiary where he has been held without trial for the past year and three months.