In Haiti, former dictator Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier has faced questioning in court for the first time over abuses committed during his rule in the 1970s and 1980s. Last year a judge rejected human rights charges against Duvalier, but lawyers for the victims have appealed that decision. Duvalier could now potentially face trial for illegal arrests, torture and politically motivated murders under his regime, which was backed by the United States. Nicole Phillips, an attorney with the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti, described one of the victims.

Nicole Phillips: “I was sitting next to, for part of the hearing, Bobby Duval, who was one of Duvalier’s thousands of victims in this regime. He said that he had spent about 17 months in prison and that he counted, himself, 180 prisoners die while he was in prison, while he was being tortured.”