He Legal Medical Institute (IML, for its acronym in French), the only institution in charge of conducting necropsies at the service of Justice Haitiis approaching 2 years without operating due to the lack of budget and specialized equipment.
In Haitiin terms of criminal cases and homicideso that the Justice To be able to investigate correctly and make an objective decision, a forensic investigation necessarily requires faith.
“The criminal justice can’t function without medicine forensic. Whoever the criminal is, he will be released if the court does not have clear information that shows that this person is not only dead, but also who killed him,” said the director of the institute, Jean Armel Demorcyin statements to EFE.
However, this institution has actually ceased to exist for almost 2 years, due to the total indifference of the state authorities.
AT THE SERVICE OF A JUSTICE THAT SERVES NO ONE
“In 20 years of autopsies periodicJustice has never called me to ask me what I have found,” he said. Demorcy, who points out that since the body was created there has only been one trial in which the institute has been used. And it wasn’t even the courts, but women’s organizations.
For 11 million Haitiansthere are only 2 forensic doctors. one lives in Haiti. The other person is a doctor who lives between Haiti y USA following escaping from an attempt kidnapping in the Caribbean nation.
In 20 years between 2 thousand and 3 thousand autopsies. The last emblematic case treated by the institute before it fell into disrepair was the autopsy of the Haitian president, Jovenel Moisemurdered at his private residence in July 2021.
FUNDAMENTAL TOOL FOR JUSTICE
Society is a little ahead of the State on this issue. Rarely does the Prosecutor’s Office, through an Investigating Judge, demand a necropsy in the framework of an investigation that is being carried out, criticized the expert.
This causes a great impact among the population, because there are many cases of suspicious deaths. The (affected) people call you, but cannot find the answer they need, because there is no necropsyDemorcy said.
However, according to haitian lawin any case of suspicious death or violent, you need a necropsy to determine the causes and circumstances.
In the Haitian mentality, no death is natural. Hence the importance of a tool like the Legal Medical Institute.
“Someone who has died suspiciously or violently should not be buried without a necropsy“, said Demorcyqualifying as flagrant violation of the law the overwhelming majority of cases of people who have died suspiciously or violently buried without autopsy.
FORENSIC MEDICINE CEASE TO EXIST
“This means that the State does not exist. This is one of the opportunities that the State has to demonstrate. This is to guarantee social order. Otherwise, it is the kingdom of impunity, it is the kingdom of reckoning, ”he lamented.
He warned, by way of example, that “when your family is killed and the State cannot guarantee the clarification of the circumstances to convict the aggressor, when you know the aggressor, revenge seems inevitable.”
Without a laboratory, without personnel, without material and without a budget, the forensic medicine in Haiti it’s collapsed. The consequences of its non-existence are investigations that continue indefinitely and the prolonged pre-trial detention who dominates the haitian judicial system for at least 2 decades.
From 2002 to today, barely 2 employees have been appointed. A secretary and an administrator. The rest of the technical staff expected to lead the forensic institute it is never the business of the state.
A TOTALLY DYSFUNCTIONAL INSTITUTE
“The last straw came at the end of 2021, the institute is in a totally dysfunctional situation,” he said. Demorcy. The last money received from Ministry of Justice It was in 2021. After that, nothing.
In 2012, the organ of investigation criminal was endowed with a legal framework by means of a decree that places it under the responsibility of the Ministry of Justicewhich must guarantee its operation, even providing it with material, and the Ministry of Public Healthwhich must name its staff.
Despite requests for staff increases, it has never been done. For this reason, in 2021 it was found that the institute was no longer working. “We no longer perform autopsies. We are totally dysfunctional. At this time we cannot carry out any expertise,” he said. Demorcy.
With information and image from EFE
