PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) – A jailed Catholic priest who was suspended from his religious duties for political activities appealed yesterday to church authorities to reverse a punishment that supporters claim was intended to halt his growing influence in the Western Hemisphere’s poorest nation.

In a letter from his jail cell, the Rev Gerard Jean-Juste challenged the suspension imposed by the Archdiocese of Port-au-Prince after activists in the party of ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide attempted to register the priest as a presidential candidate for the November 20 elections.

“Since I am not a candidate for the election for president I should be able to continue my service as a priest,” Jean-Juste said in a letter dictated to Bill Quigley, a law professor at Loyola University of New Orleans who is part of his legal team.

Haitian authorities ruled that because Jean-Juste is in jail, and could not register in person as required by law, he could not be a candidate in the first elections since Aristide was forced from power following a violent rebellion in February 2004.

“He knows that if he decides to run for president and qualifies that he has to be above his priestly duties, but he has not done that,” Quigley, surrounded by Jean-Juste’s parishioners, said at a news conference outside his church.

The priest’s lawyers said Jean-Juste will ask Port-au-Prince Archbishop Joseph Serge Miot to lift the suspension. If that fails, he will appeal to Pope Benedict XVI.

Jean-Juste, now prohibited from officiating at Mass or performing any other official functions as a priest, was jailed in July on suspicion of involvement in the abduction and slaying of a well-known local journalist, Jacques Roche.

Authorities have since expanded the investigation to include alleged weapons violations and have searched his church, which is set amid steep, deeply rutted dirt lanes and tin-roofed shacks in the Cazeau neighbourhood of the capital.

The priest, who was in Miami when Roche was kidnapped, has denied the allegations.

Jean-Juste, who has drawn comparisons to Aristide for his impassioned sermons and advocacy for the poor, has emerged as a prominent figure in the ousted leader’s Lavalas Family party, which remains a potent political force in Haiti.

Amnesty International said in July that Jean-Juste was detained “solely because he has peacefully exercised his right to freedom of expression,” and should be considered a prisoner of conscience.

During a one-day visit to Haiti on Tuesday, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice cited the Jean-Juste case, along with that of jailed former Prime Minister Yvon Neptune, as examples in which the government should improve its justice system. Haiti has jailed hundreds of people, including many Aristide supporters, without trials or, in some cases, charges for long periods.

“Justice has to come in a timely fashion and it should not be the case that anyone can interpret that there is some kind of political motive here,” Rice said.