Status: 07/17/2021 3:44 a.m.
More than 20 people have been arrested after the murder of Haiti’s President Moïse. Now there are new findings: The police assume that a former employee of the Ministry of Justice forwarded the order to the act.
A former employee of the Haitian Ministry of Justice is said to have forwarded the order to murder President Jovenel Moïse to the attackers. The man told two Colombian mercenaries three days before the murder that this was their mission, said the chief of the Colombian national police, Jorge Vargas, in a video address.
He relied on the findings of joint investigations between Haitian and Colombian authorities with Interpol. The man worked in an anti-corruption unit with the secret service, said Vargas.
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The Haitian police published search notices on Tuesday, including photos of the ex-official as well as an ex-senator and a third Haitian for murder, attempted murder and armed robbery. According to media reports, one of the Colombians was shot dead by police officers after the murder and the other arrested. According to Vargas, they were among a group of four who had entered Haiti in late April. They were then later followed by 20 more Colombians.
First, they were hired for security services through a Venezuelan company in the US city of Miami, said Vargas. Later, the ex-functionary and another man informed the two Colombians that they should arrest Moïse. After all, the job was called murder – which, according to Vargas, most of the mercenary troops did not know.
Funeral on Friday
The 53-year-old head of state was attacked and shot in his residence by a heavily armed commando on the night of July 7th. His wife survived injured. So far, 18 Colombians have been arrested and three more killed. Two Americans of Haitian origin and three Haitians were also arrested. Among them was a Haitian doctor who lived in the United States. The police accused him of hiring the mercenaries to become president of the Caribbean state himself.
Moïse is to be buried next Friday. The state funeral will take place in Cap-Haitien, said interim Prime Minister Claude Joseph.
Ex-President Aristide returns
While international fear of further chaos in crisis-ridden Haiti is growing, ex-President Jean-Bertrand Aristide returned to the Caribbean country on Friday. The first democratically elected President of Haiti had been treated for Covid-19 in Cuba.
Aristide was greeted by hundreds of followers. The 68-year-old leader of the Fanmi Lavala party is a controversial figure in Haiti. The former priest first came to power after a democratic election in 1990 and was overthrown in a coup just a few months later. As a result, Aristide initially went into exile. In 1994 he was reinstated as president with the help of a US intervention. In 2001, Aristide was re-elected president. Three years later he resigned under pressure from demonstrators and the United States.