On March 11, 2009, Peace Corps Volunteer Catherine “Kate” Puzey was murdered at her home in the West African nation of Benin.  Kate was a teacher.  The assassination is presumably related to Kate’s accusing a fellow teacher, who was also a Peace Corps trainer, of sexually abusing his students.  Kate had three months before completing her service and returning to the United States.

The fall-out was significant, the story receiving national media attention in both Benin and the United States, including on ABC News.  President Barack Obama as well as Beninese President Thomas Yayi Boni each gave press conferences concerning the crime and each received Kate’s family for private visits.  The Peace Corps office in Benin was criticized for its mismanagement of Kate’s theoretically anonymous complaints prior to her murder, and of the agency’s insensitive methods of dealing with family and friends after her death.     

Returned and current Peace Corps volunteers the world over were shocked by this tragedy.  In particular, those who served in Benin were distraught for the Puzey family and were in disbelief that such an event could have happened in their beloved host country, a nation famous for championing peace and democracy in a troubled region.

Out of respect for Kate’s family and friends and under the assumption that the government of the United States would actively assist the government of Benin in establishing justice, we, former Peace Corps volunteers in Benin and friends of that country, have for nearly seven years remained silent on another troubling aspect of this case—namely, the incarceration without trial of Aurélien Jacques Bio. 

Jacques was a good friend and trusted mentor to many of us.  Until his arrest Jacques had spent close to 20 years as a Peace Corps employee, most recently as Associate Director of Peace Corps Benin and the director for the Small Enterprise Development program.  He was dedicated to our training and support during our two years of service in his homeland.

Jacques was a pillar of his community.  He had an impeccable reputation and was highly respected among Peace Corps volunteers and staff alike.  Most importantly, Jacques cared deeply for each volunteer and looked after us as if we were his own family. 

On March 18, 2009, Jacques was arrested by Beninese authorities for conspiracy to murder.  That was a week after his brother, Constant Bio, the teacher Kate had reported for abusing his students, had been identified as the prime suspect in Kate’s death and arrested along with other would-be accomplices.  Jacques has remained behind bars since then.  He unequivocally maintains his innocence.

On the day the crime was committed Jacques was at work in the Peace Corps headquarters more than 300 miles away.  Nearly seven years on, there has been no evidence produced that connects Jacques to the murder in any manner.  Neither has there been a trial or public hearing.

Jacques is purported to have informed his brother of Kate’s accusations, his brother then accused of killing Kate in a fit of rage.  Even if Jacques did provide Constant with that fateful information there is no reason to believe that Jacques’ intent was malicious.  (Again, Jacques has never been tried or found guilty of anything, including informing his brother or anyone else of information pertaining to Kate, and Jacques was certainly not alone in having heard about such correspondences in the Peace Corps office.)  As the elder sibling, Jacques more likely would have contacted his brother to reprimand him.  Meanwhile, there is no law or tradition prohibiting doing such in Benin or in the United States.  

In March 2011, upon review of a report provided by the FBI, the presiding Beninese judge and prosecutor categorically determined that there was not enough evidence to take the case to trial.  According to Beninese and international law, Jacques and the other detainees should have been released as a result of this ruling.  Now, years later, they still remain in detention.  

It must be noted that the independent Beninese judiciary is recognized for its inability (or refusal) to adjudicate cases.  The American State Department published findings in 2014 affirming that 75% of the detainees incarcerated in Beninese prisons were being held without trial, many for years on end.  In 2011, Marie-Elyse Gbédo, then-minister of justice for Benin, put that figure at over 90% in one Beninese prison.

Although we cannot prove Jacques’ innocence, after more than eighty (80) months of being held in a Beninese prison, no one has proven his guilt.

Today, we call on the governments of the United States and the Republic of Benin to finally take decisive action:  Either bring the accused to trial or allow the accused to go free.

As Peace Corps volunteers, we were proud to represent the United States overseas.  At the outset of our service we took the Oath of Allegiance and did so with great honor.  We pledged to defend the Constitution of the United States and to bear true faith and fidelity to the same.  We brought the principles of the American form of government with us to our host country.  

As such, we can no longer reconcile our belief in liberty and justice for all and our silence in this case.  Our ideals demand that Jacques be considered innocent until proven guilty; that he benefit from a fair, public, and speedy trial, and that he either be convicted through due process or be released.  Not only are those our personal moral standards as Americans, they are the basic principles of Beninese law, too.  Detention without trial is amoral anywhere (and illegal in Benin), yet it persists in this case.  That is wrong, and it must change.

Further, on September 9, 2015, the government of the United States adopted a new aid package for Benin, the so-called Benin Power Compact from the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), worth $375,000,000.  That’s in addition to the first Millennium Challenge Corporation compact with Benin, completed in 2011 and worth $307,000,000, comprising the ironically titled Access to Justice for All program.  The MCC web site declares that the first pact “created a more efficient judicial system” in Benin. 

American leaders, including a currently serving U.S. senator and a former ambassador to Cotonou, have praised the Beninese judiciary for a job well-done concerning Kate’s dossier.  We think such pronouncements and the free money offered the government of Benin at this particular moment in history insult the memory of Kate Puzey by ignoring the lack of progress in her criminal case.  They also disregard the thousands of detainees held without trial in Benin, including Jacques Bio. 

Despite the years separating us from the tragedy, we continue to mourn for Kate.  We grieve for her family and her friends, for fellow Peace Corps volunteers and staff, for Kate’s students and neighbors in her Beninese village, and for all those who suffered the loss of this kind-spirited young woman.  Kate Puzey was an exemplary volunteer, a good friend of Benin, and a great American.

At the same time, we mourn for Jacques and anyone else who may have been wrongly accused in this case.  We mourn for their loved ones, family members and friends who have spent close to seven unrecoverable years in limbo without husbands, fathers and brothers due to a lack of due process and proper justice under the law.

The indefinite detention without trial of Jacques Bio and the other accused must end now.  

In honor of Kate’s memory, in support of Jacques, our mentor and friend, and with love for the United States and Benin, we, returned Peace Corps volunteers of Benin, our friends and families, and other proponents of justice hereby entreat the United States of America and the Republic of Benin to either move forward with a fair trial for Jacques Bio or release him immediately.