Switzerland's top court ruled that Baby Doc's family could have his frozen millions hours before the Haiti earthquake, and parliament passed a law to stop it

Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier inherited power from his father, François "Papa Doc" Duvalier, at 19 in 1971. A popular uprising ended their 28 years of rule in 1986, and he went into exile in France. He was alleged to have taken $300 million to $800 million from Haiti. In 1986 Haiti asked Switzerland to freeze about $5 million held in UBS accounts through a Liechtenstein foundation. Haiti did not bring a legal case, and in 2002 the statute of limitations nearly returned the money to Duvalier; Switzerland kept it frozen under emergency powers. In August 2009 a lower court called the family a criminal organisation. On 12 January 2010 the Federal Supreme Court reversed it, ruling that the limitation period had expired in 2001 and that the family could reclaim at least $4.6 million. The decision was taken hours before the earthquake struck Haiti and was announced on 3 February 2010. The same day the government kept the money frozen. The "Lex Duvalier" took effect on 1 February 2011. Duvalier returned to Haiti in January 2011, was briefly detained, and died in 2014. In December 2015 the Federal Administrative Court kept 4.5 million francs blocked that a Duvalier minister, Frantz Merceron, had placed with Credit Suisse, rejecting his widow's claim. A 2020 report said Haiti was still waiting for the Duvalier money.