Haiti: two security officials of the assassinated president do not go to the prosecution

Published on : 07/15/2021 – 08:33

What did those responsible for the security of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse do during his assassination? The question remains. Because the two security officials of the Head of State did not respond to summons from the Port-au-Prince prosecutor’s office responsible for the investigation, a judicial source told AFP on Wednesday (July 14th).

Jovenel Moïse’s security chief, Dimitri Hérard, did not appear on Wednesday, like divisional commissioner Jean Laguel Civil, the president’s security coordinator, who was expected in court on Tuesday, according to a prosecutor.

Two choices

Dimitri Hérard was summoned after the apparently disconcerting ease with which killers assassinated the Haitian head of state. He is also the target of an investigation from Bogota into his multiple trips to Colombia, the country of origin of several of the suspects, and elsewhere in South America.

Me Patrick Laurent, member of the bar of Port-au-Prince, told AFP that the prosecution could now “decide to close the case without further action or seize the investigation cabinet, since it is a crime.”

The chief prosecutor of Port-au-Prince, Me Bed-Ford Claude, could also mobilize the police to lead them before him, he added.

The Port-au-Prince prosecutor’s office has already heard from three leaders of opposition political parties: former senators Youri Latortue and Steven Benoît as well as former deputy Jerry Tardieu.

“I have no idea about this assassination that I have already condemned,” said Mr. Latortue on Tuesday after his hearing, calling on the prosecution to “find the real culprits” rather than “persecute the political opposition” .

Shadow areas

Many gray areas persist in the investigation into the death of the Haitian president, killed by an armed commando at his home on July 7.

Haitian police said they had arrested around 20 people, including 18 Colombians and 3 Haitians (two of them also having American nationality), as well as a mysterious alleged sponsor, Christian Emmanuel Sanon, a Haitian from Florida.

The political confusion reigning in Haiti, aggravated by the climate of violence in the poorest country in the Americas, raises fears of an explosion in Covid-19 cases, said on Wednesday PAHO, a UN body working as the WHO regional office in the Americas.

“We are concerned for Haiti which, amidst considerable political turmoil, has seen thousands of residents displaced by increasing violence and instability and massing in shelters that could be hot spots for contamination,” he said. explained the director of PAHO, Clarissa Étienne.

With AFP