By: Staff Writer
September 17, 2021
Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry has ordered the firing of the country’s top prosecutor, who was investigating the assassination of the late President Jovenel Moise, a spokesman for the Prime Minister said Tuesday.
Port-au-Prince’s chief prosecutor, Bed-Ford Claude, had been seeking charges against Henry in connection with the killing.
Jude Ellie, a Haitian engineer, told Caribbean Magazine Plus when he heard of the allegations being levied against Mr Henry: “Everyone, from the mightiest to the lowliest, must be considered innocent until proven guilty. Haitians must relearn to scrupulously respect our laws.
He added: “There is so much Impunity in Haiti that people tend to assume the worst when it come to rich or powerful persons. I say let justice take its course and show that even the Prime Minister is not above the law.
“If found guilty then he must be punished to the full extent of the Law.”
Henry, a 71-year-old neurosurgeon, became Haiti’s principal leader in July, two weeks after Moïse was killed at his home in the capital Port-au-Prince.
Supporters describe Henry as an upstanding member of Haiti’s medical community who had been grappling with the unenviable task of trying to stabilize a country rocked by the murder of its president and then a 7.2-magnitude earthquake that killed more than 2,000 people. But on Tuesday Haiti’s prime minister was sucked into the heart of the alleged plot behind Moïse’s murder as the country’s chief prosecutor, Bed-Ford Claude, asked a judge to charge him with suspected involvement.
“There are enough compromising elements … to prosecute Henry and ask for his outright indictment,” Claude wrote in the official request, according to the Associated Press.
Jean Charles, a contributor to Caribbean Magazine Plus, added: “Nothing will come of this. Henry just fired the prosecutor so “that is that.”
All of this fuels the suspicions from early reports in the immediate aftermath of Moise’s killing that a high profile and very influential doctor was a key suspect in the assassination. But Henry’s name was not circulated as a suspect in the early stages.
Mr Charles said: “I think its more than just a conspiracy with a high profile doctor being linked. All of the countries in the world are involved, I think.
“I was speaking to a friend of mine who was connected to the Vatican and he told me that this conspiracy goes up as far as the United Nations, just to tell you how serious people think Moise’s assassination is.
“My friend told me he would write a letter to the Pope and he did that earlier, and I asked him what did the Pope tell you in return? He told me to wait on the Holy Spirit and one week later Moise was killed.”
Moise was brutally killed during an attack on his private residence on July 7. The ongoing investigation into his killing has turned up dozens of suspects, including US and Colombian citizens, but government officials continue to hunt for a mastermind and motive.
Last week, Claude invited Henry to testify about the case, citing evidence that a key suspect in the assassination called him in the hours after the murder.
Henry made no immediate comment. But last weekend, amid reports that murder investigators wanted to quiz him about telephone conversations he was alleged to have had with one of their chief suspects, Haiti’s leader vowed he would not be distracted from his mission and insisted “the real culprits” would be tracked down and punished.
In the two-page request he submitted on Tuesday, Claude claimed Henry had spoken to the former justice ministry official Joseph Felix Badio for at least seven minutes following Moïse’s 7 July shooting. Henry was allegedly at Port-au-Prince’s Hotel Montana at the time while Badio was thought to have been speaking from somewhere near Moïse’s residence. Badio has yet to be apprehended and his current whereabouts are unknown.
Henry was appointed by Moise to serve as prime minister by Moise on July 5, 2021, but two days later Moïse was assassinated, stalling the transfer of power and a minor fight for power in Haiti ensured with incumbent prime minister Claude Joseph who was backed by the military and was acknowledged by the United States as the rightful prime minister. On 19 July, Joseph announced that he will stand down as prime minister in favour of Henry.
Two months after Moise’s assassination Haitians along with Moise’s widow are still nowhere closer to finding the real killers.