PORT-AU-PRINCE (Reuters) – According to a document released to local media, a Haitian court overseeing the inquiry into the 2021 killing of the Caribbean nation’s last president has indicted almost fifty individuals, including his widow and a former prime minister.
Judge Walther Wesser Voltaire’s 122-page memo, which was made available to the public by AyiboPost, claims that the president’s widow, Martine Moise, plotted to assassinate the president to remove him from office.
On the evening of July 7, 2021, armed men broke into Moise’s Port-au-Prince bedroom, killing him with a gunshot wound. The former first lady was injured in the raid.
The judge’s order mandates the accused’s arrest and trial.
Neither Joseph nor the former first lady responded to Reuters’s request for comment right away. Moise has voiced her disapproval of what she regards as unjust arrests and political persecution on social media.
Meanwhile, Joseph informed the Miami Herald that Prime Minister Ariel Henry, the president’s de facto successor, was the primary beneficiary and was currently “weaponizing the Haitian justice system” to target opponents in “a classic coup d’etat.”
According to a representative for Henry’s office, the judge acted independently and was “free to issue his order by the law and his conscience.”
Days before the assassination, Henry was named to succeed Joseph, who is now the head of an opposition group. He promised elections, but he has asked for international assistance and postponed them indefinitely, claiming a huge earthquake and the rise of heavily armed criminal gangs.
The majority of the capital is reportedly under the control of the gangs, and Kenya is getting ready to command an international force recognised by the United Nations to assist the Haitian police, however, previous abuses by foreign missions and accusations against Henry’s government have made nations hesitant to offer assistance.
Six of the eleven defendants in a different case involving Moise’s murder are pleading guilty to sending Colombian mercenaries to abduct Moise, which was last-minute changed to a conspiracy to murder him. The case is being tried in Miami.
According to US allegations, the conspirators wanted to replace Moise with Christian Emmanuel Sanon, a preacher who is Haitian-American.
