Haitian judge indicts ex-prime minister, police chief, former first lady in probe into ex-president’s death

A Haitian judge investigating the 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moïse has indicted about 50 people in connection with his death, including the late president’s widow, an ex-prime minister and a former chief of Haiti’s National Police.

Judge Walther Wesser Voltaire said in documents made public by AyiboPost that Martine Moïse conspired with former Prime Minister Claude Joseph in her husband’s death so that she could replace him as president. They are also accused of criminal association.

The former chief of Haiti’s National Police, Léon Charles, who held the position when Moïse was killed and now serves as Haiti’s permanent representative to the Organization of the American States, is charged with murder, attempted murder, possession and illegal carrying of weapons, conspiracy against the internal security of the state and criminal association.

Voltaire is the fifth judge to lead the investigation after others stepped down for various reasons, including fear of being killed.

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President Moïse was shot and killed on the night of July 7, 2021, when armed men broke into his Port-au-Prince bedroom. The raid also injured the former first lady.

The judge’s order called for the arrest and trial of the people charged in the incident.

The former first lady has criticized what she describes as unjust arrests and political persecutions on social media.

Joseph told The Miami Herald that the late president’s de-facto successor, Prime Minister Ariel Henry, was the main beneficiary and was now “weaponizing the Haitian justice system” to persecute opponents in “a classic coup d’etat.”

A spokesperson for Henry’s office, however, said the judge was independent and “free to issue his order in accordance with the law and his conscience.”

Recent violent protests have demanded the resignation of Henry.

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Henry was appointed to replace Joseph days before the assassination. He has vowed to hold elections but has postponed them indefinitely over a deadly earthquake and the growing power of heavily armed criminal gangs, which he has sought foreign aid for.

The gangs are now estimated to control most of the capital.

Kenya is preparing to lead a United Nations-ratified international force to support Haitian police, but previous abuses by foreign missions and allegations against Henry’s government have left countries hesitant to offer support.

A separate case in connection with Moïse’s killing is being tried in Miami, where six of 11 defendants have pleaded guilty to a plot to send Colombian mercenaries to kidnap the late president – a plan that became a plot to murder him at the last moment.

According to U.S. charges, the conspirators sought to replace Moïse with Haitian-American pastor Christian Emmanuel Sanon.

Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.