Jean-Claude Duvalier Swiss bank account

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Federal Court to decide on fate of Haiti funds

Switzerland's highest court is to decide whether money deposited in Swiss banks by Haiti's former dictator will go to his family or his country.

The family of Jean-Claude Duvalier - nicknamed Baby Doc - appealed on Tuesday against the decision taken two weeks ago by the Federal Penal Court to unfreeze deposits worth SFr7,000,000 ($6.6 million) and give them to the authorities in Haiti.

The case will now be heard by the Federal Court in Lausanne.

The family argues that the money is part of the personal fortune of Baby Doc's mother.

However the penal court said she was part of the same criminal organisation headed by his father, who preceded him in office, and that she had benefited from the systematic embezzlement of funds which he had operated.

The Haitian government accuses the Duvalier family of misappropriating over $100 million before the overthrow of the dictatorship in 1986.

Swissinfo.ch And Agencies, September 9 2009, 7:20 AM

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