In a historic blow to Haiti’s already dysfunctional judicial system, a judicial oversight board has rebuked more than two dozen judges for misconduct and paved the way for their firing — a clean-up of the nation’s judiciary that will likely affect its handling of pressing legal matters, from corruption to gang violence to drug trafficking.
The Superior Council of the Judiciary informed the justice minister of 30 judges whose certification won’t be renewed for offenses that range from drunkenness and property theft to a lack of moral integrity and academic qualifications to abuse of authority and facilitating the release of notorious criminals.
The exposure of the corruption in Haiti’s judiciary comes just five months after the government’s anti-corruption unit issued a report detailing corruption in government institutions and agencies. That report concluded that Haiti’s public administration is a cesspool of corruption in which the actions of civil servants and elected officials go unchecked and they do as they like without concerns about the consequences.
