PORT-AU-PRINCE — Authorities have arrested a high-ranking Haitian police official and a former soldier for their alleged involvement in the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse, the Haitian National Police (PNH) said. In addition, the agency said via its Facebook page, it is looking for 11 other police officers in connection with the case.
The arrested are Emmanuel Louis, a divisional police inspector, and Miradieu Faustin, the ex-soldier. During the arrest, police confiscated from Louis’ home three gun licenses in the name of Jhon Joël Joseph, a former Haitian senator currently in jail in the United States for his alleged role in the July 2021 murder.
Faustin works for a local commercial company as head of security.
In addition, PNH said it is actively seeking 11 other officers to question them in connection with the case. Details about those suspects were not provided in the statement.
It is not clear if Louis was currently in his role or had been terminated.
The PNH spokesperson had not returned messages seeking comment as of this writing.
Case background
Sometime between late night July 6 and early July 7, a group of Colombia mercenaries brutally tortured and murdered Moïse, then left his wife Martine for dead inside the master bedroom of the couple’s personal residence in Pelerin 5.
Since then, at least five different judges have tried to oversee the investigation and nearly 50 suspects arrested, even as various characters in government and elsewhere were said to put up obstacles in the case. Officials who worked on the case have said they received death threats and at least one person, former investigative judge Merlan Belabre, said he was worried about his family’s safety.
Several fugitives have also been arrested this year, including Joseph. The former senator, according to a 122-page report, was a leader of the assassination plot who paid for the assassins’ rental cars and met with other suspects in the lead-up. Joseph fled to Jamaica soon after, but was captured and extradited to the U.S. at the start of the year.
Over the summer Judge Walther Wesser Voltaire began overseeing the investigation and prosecution. However, the justice system tasked with bringing the killers to justice deteriorated further as multiple crises hit the country. In June, gangs even took over the Palace of Justice in mid-June, weakening the country’s justice system even further as lawyers and other judicial workers were too scared to report to work and case files were going missing or being destroyed.
Since the summer, the gang violence, fuel shortage and cholera have burdened the country, bringing to a full stop – peyilòk – all activities for nearly two months and prompting a call from Prime Minister Ariel Henry for an international armed force to help. Activities began resuming in November.
