Four Haitians accuse "Baby Doc" of torture, abuse

PORT-AU-PRINCE (Reuters) - Four Haitians, including a former United Nations spokeswoman, filed criminal complaints on Wednesday against former dictator Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier, accusing him of crimes against humanity including torture.

The filings came a day after Duvalier, 59, was briefly detained and charged by a Haitian state prosecutor with corruption and embezzlement and other alleged crimes during his 1971-1986 rule. He returned unexpectedly to Haiti on Sunday from exile in France

Michele Montas, the former spokeswoman for U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, said she and three other Haitians who were jailed during Duvalier's rule filed the complaints with a Port-au-Prince prosecutor.

"There are grounds not only to judge him for economic crimes but also for human rights abuses," she said.

Duvalier's surprise return home has convulsed politics in Haiti, which is grappling with a dispute over presidential election results and a cholera epidemic that has killed more than 3,800 people. The Western Hemisphere's poorest state is still recovering from a devastating 2010 earthquake.

Duvalier, who fled Haiti in 1986 to escape a popular uprising, waved and blew kisses to a crowd of supporters on Wednesday from a balcony at a luxury hotel in Port-au-Prince where he is staying. Prosecutors say he is "at the disposition of judicial authorities."

A lawyer for Duvalier told reporters the former strongman plans to stay in Haiti and brushed off the charges filed against him by the prosecutor as politically motivated.

"There was no file, no warrant, no infraction, nor crime," lawyer Reynold Georges said.

"I say clearly it is the (Haitian) government who is behind all of this," he added without elaborating.

(Writing by Kevin Gray; Editing by Pascal Fletcher and Will Dunham)