Assassination in Haiti: the Prime Minister dismissed from his functions the prosecutor who wants to investigate him for the murder of Jovenel Moise

The Prime Minister of Haiti, Ariel henri, announced Tuesday the dismissal of the prosecutor Bel-Ford Claude, a few hours later He will ask a judge to open an investigation to the head of government as an accused for the assassination of the president Jovenel Moise.

Henry communicated the dismissal of the prosecutor in a letter dated Monday, but made public today by the Government, in which the dismissal is justified by an alleged “Serious administrative offense” committed by Claude.

The prosecutor asked the Port-au-Prince court of first instance to investigate Henry as the accused in the assassination case, for the suspicion aroused by the telephone conversations that Henry allegedly had with one of the main murder suspects a few hours after the crime.

In a letter addressed to the director of the Haitian Immigration and Emigration Department, Joseph Cianculli, and collected by the newspaper Haiti Gazette, Claude transfers that “Mr. Ariel Henry is forbidden to leave the national territory by air, sea and land due to serious charges of assassination of President Jovenel Moise. “

Henri must appear this Tuesday as part of the investigation, who found several phone calls between the current Prime Minister and one of the main suspects in the murder and that they would have taken place on the very day of the assassination.

Moses was assassinated on July 7 by a commando of Colombian mercenaries hired by a Miami security company run by a Venezuelan.

To date, 44 people have been arrested, including around 20 former Colombian soldiers and five Haitian and American citizens, as well as several police officers.. None of the president’s security guards were injured in the attack.

The government commissioner of Port-au-Prince, the equivalent of a federal prosecutor, asked the murder investigating judge to accuse Henry of being involved in the case because of the alleged phone calls Henry made with one of the main suspects.

“There are enough compromising elements which form (my) conviction on the advisability of prosecuting Mr. Henry and asking for his direct indictment “writes Bed-Fort Claude, the commissioner, in an official letter to a court in Port-au-Prince.

Henry had previously been invited to appear for questioning in the case to provide explanations about the alleged conversations he had hours after Moise’s murder with a former government official wanted in connection with the murder.

Friday, Claude had asked Henry to show up on Tuesday to answer questions about the calls.

The police continues to actively seek out former civil servant Joseph Felix Badio, who worked in the anti-corruption unit of the Ministry of Justice.

Badio’s phone was reportedly located in the area near Moise’s residence when Badio called Henry twice in the early hours of July 7, after the president was assassinated.

In your letter to the judge, Claude said the calls lasted a total of seven minutes. He also noted that a government official tweeted last month that Henry claimed he had never spoken to Badio.

Henry criticized the previous request on Saturday, saying: “These diversionary tactics, designed to confuse and prevent justice from taking its course in stride, will not hold up.”

Those who are really guilty, the brains of the heinous assassination of President Jovenel Moise and those who ordered it, will be found, brought to justice and punished for their acts ”.

A prime minister He can only be legally questioned with the permission of the President, but after Moise’s assassination, Haiti does not have a president.

Henry was appointed prime minister by Moise days before the president’s death and he was sworn in on July 20, pledging to improve the country’s terrible security and hold long-delayed elections.

(With information from EFE, Europa press and AFP)

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