PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - Legal threats loomed over Haiti's ex-dictator Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier Monday after the current president said he must face justice for crimes during his 1971-1986 reign.

President Rene Preval, in comments during a visit to the neighboring Dominican Republic, said "everyone is responsible before justice for their crimes" under Haiti's constitution.

"The government has done all it can do and we now hope that justice will do its work," Preval told reporters Saturday nearly a week after Duvalier's return, which sparked fresh turmoil in the earthquake-shattered country.

Within 48 hours of Duvalier's unexpected return, government prosecutors slapped him with a slew of charges, many related to the alleged siphoning off of hundreds of millions of dollars during his 15-year rule.

Six private lawsuits have also been filed against the 59-year-old former strongman over alleged human rights violations and torture, and judicial officials expect more complaints to follow.

Chief Magistrate Harycidas Auguste said the government was now pursuing a dual track on Duvalier -- with the corruption, embezzlement and criminal charges on one hand, and crimes against humanity charges on the other.

"We can't really say for sure by when we'll stop receiving complaints," he told AFP. "Even at the trial, if we arrive at that stage, someone may come and claim to have been a victim."

Duvalier's lawyer said the former dictator had every intention of staying in Haiti to clear his name and suggested it was the current president who should go to jail.

"Preval should go to prison for all his wrongdoings, for the stolen millions, and he knows it very well," Reynold Georges told AFP.

Duvalier has denied his unexpected return, after 25 years of exile spent mostly in France, has anything to do with a post-election crisis gripping the country that led to deadly riots in December.

Human rights activists and experts suggest the most plausible explanation is that Duvalier is short of money and wants to get his hands on $5.7 million that Switzerland is set to release to the Haitian government.

An American lawyer in Duvalier's entourage said the former dictator only wanted to make sure the cash, frozen in Swiss bank accounts, goes to the Haitian people.

"What he'd like to do with the funds in Switzerland is contribute to the rebuilding of the country," Edwin Marger said. "He's not asking that anything goes to him personally."

In his only public remarks since returning, Duvalier, appearing frail, expressed sorrow on Friday to "fellow countrymen who say, rightly, that they were victims under my government."

Duvalier's return has been widely condemned for compounding the political uncertainty in a country still in ruins from a catastrophic earthquake a year ago that killed more than 220,000 people.

Around 100 people took to the rubble-strewn streets of the capital on Sunday in response to a call from a dozen presidential candidates for mass protests to annul the elections.

US-led pressure is mounting on Preval to withdraw his handpicked protege from delayed second round elections after international monitors slammed the vote as tainted by fraud.

Initial results showed that opposition candidate Michel Martelly lost out to Preval's ruling party contender Jude Celestin by less than 7,000 votes.

Opposition candidates accused Preval and the electoral commission of orchestrating massive fraud in favor of Celestin and the president allowed in a team of international monitors to scrutinize the results.

In a lengthy report, the monitors advised the electoral commission to let Martelly face Mirlande Manigat -- the 70-year-old former first lady who clearly topped the November 28 poll -- in the second round run-off.

The election commission insists it can only change the order if legal complaints from the candidates are upheld. Preval is yet to comment on the report.