Two and a half years after the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse, Haitian justice is continuing its investigation.
This Monday, the Haitian media
AyiboPost
published on its website the order issued on January 25 by the investigating judge responsible for the murder of the head of state.
The document indicates the referral of around fifty people to the criminal court, including the widow of the ex-president and several senior Haitian officials.
They will be
“tried for the acts of criminal associations, armed robbery, terrorism, assassination and complicity in assassination, crimes committed to the prejudice”
of the former president.
Jovenel Moïse was killed on July 7, 2021. Around one o'clock in the morning, a commando composed in particular of Colombian mercenaries entered his home and opened fire on the presidential couple.
None of the three groups responsible for the president's security responded.
Martine Moïse, the first lady, was injured in the arm, while her husband died instantly.
“They were looking for papers and they found them
,” she testified shortly after the incident.
Relatives implicated
Justice, however, calls into question the words of Martine Moïse, for whom
"the consistent charges and the indications of involvement [...] in the assassination [...] are sufficient"
.
“The statements of the former first lady (…) are so tainted with contradictions that they leave something to be desired and discredit her
,” notes the order.
The judge particularly questions the testimony where she claimed to have taken refuge under the bed to protect herself.
“As the piece of furniture is manufactured, even a giant rat (cricetomys emini) whose size measures between 35 and 45 centimeters cannot access the underside [of the bed] to hide there,”
underlines the document.
Other relatives of the late president are accused of having participated in the operation.
The former interim prime minister, Claude Joseph, and the former director general of the national police, Léon Charles, are thus the subject of prosecution,
“sufficient evidence”
revealing their involvement in the organization of this crime.
Félix Badio, friend of the current Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry, is accused of having been one of the sponsors of the murder.
During the investigation, the latter declared that clans had formed at the presidential palace to eliminate the head of state and
“monopolize power”
.
On the evening of the murder, several telephone conversations allegedly took place between Ariel Henry and him, but the Prime Minister claims not to remember them.
“There are many other friends who told me they spoke to me that day who I do not remember ,
”
maintained the head of government.
First real progress
Although a few arrests had taken place so far, this series of indictments marks the first real legal progress in the case.
The investigation had been floundering for almost three years, with numerous judges succeeding one another, before resigning.
Eleven people were prosecuted in the United States, the American justice having taken up the case on the grounds that the operation had been orchestrated from Florida.
Joseph Vincent, a Haitian-American accused of having participated in the assassination, was sentenced to life imprisonment on February 9.
He had pleaded guilty.
But some emphasize the insufficiency of education.
“The document (…) does not reveal important new information in the file.
For example, it does not make it possible to clearly identify the intellectual authors of the assassination, nor the financial arms
,” criticizes
AyiboPost
.
An opinion shared by Samuel Madistin, the lawyer for two of the accused, who declared that
“this failure represents the weakness of the investigation.
»
Since the assassination of the ex-president, America's poorest country, already marked by violence and insecurity, has fallen into the hands of extremely violent mafia gangs.
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