Haiti: Prime Minister dismisses the prosecutor who threatened him with indictment in the investigation into the assassination of President Moïse – archyde

Dismissal against threat of indictment: the pass of arms was terrible, Tuesday, September 14, in Haiti, between the chief of the prosecutor’s office of Port-au-Prince, Bed-Ford Claude, and the prime minister, Ariel Henry, exposing to the great day the infighting at the head of the poorest country in the Americas.

The first, commissioner of the government of Port-au-Prince – equivalent of the prosecutor -, asked in the morning the judge investigating the murder of President Jovenel Moïse to indict the second, because of phone calls that he allegedly had with one of the main suspects in the case.

Bed-Ford Claude also demanded that Ariel Henry be banned from leaving Haitian territory “Because of the seriousness of the facts exposed”. He had assured that he had enough compromising elements.

But a few hours later, twist: the Prime Minister announces dismissal of the prosecutor for “Serious administrative fault”. This new twist comes on top of the immense chaos reigning in the investigation of the assassination, on July 7, of Jovenel Moïse by an armed commando.

Forty-four people – including eighteen Colombians and two Americans of Haitian origin – have already been arrested as part of the investigation into this crime, committed at the victim’s home without any police officer from his close security. hurt.

Justice and politics in conflict

Quickly, legal specialists were alarmed by the stranglehold of policies on justice, seeing in the approach of the prosecutor an obstacle to the independence of this institution. Some in government circles had indeed called in recent days for the Prime Minister’s resignation.

The prosecutor launched the first shock on Friday, asking the head of government to appear at the prosecution in order to explain the telephone conversations he allegedly had with one of the actively wanted people. Bed-Ford Claude had also summoned Joseph Félix Badio, a former executive of the anti-corruption unit, who would have been geolocated, the night of the attack, in the district where the private residence of Jovenel Moïse was located, in the time of calls made to Ariel Henry, at 4:03 a.m. then 4:20 a.m.

The next day, the prime minister denounced the prosecutor’s approach, qualifying it as a diversion “To sow confusion and prevent justice from doing its job calmly.” “The real culprits, the intellectual authors and the sponsors of the heinous assassination of the president will be found, brought to justice and punished for their crime”, he added.

Tuesday evening, the Prime Minister’s services announced replacing of Bed-Ford Claude by Frantz Louis Juste.