Almost five months after the assassination of the Haitian president, Jovenel Moïse, his eldest son, Joverlein Moïse, deplores the “parody of justice” which he says characterizes the investigation initiated in Haiti to shed light on this murder at the top of the l ‘State.
The 29-year-old is now placing his hopes in the hands of “allies of Haiti, defenders of freedom and democracy”, of which Canada is a part, to put pressure on his country’s legal system to calls out and judges those responsible for this tragedy. International solidarity now necessary for justice to be done for his father, he said this week in an interview with the To have to.
“What we feared at the beginning is unfortunately happening,” says Joverlein Moïse, who fled to Quebec the day after his father’s assassination, for “security reasons”. he assures. He has partly lived there for nine years.
“The Haitian judicial machine is not working very well. Political influences, like those of the people responsible for my father’s assassination, are still very strong. And we must continue to put pressure on the Haitian justice system so that it finally assumes its responsibilities. “
Last Saturday, Mr. Moïse also questioned, through his lawyers, the United Nations special rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers, the Peruvian Diego García-Sayán, to share his concerns with him. as to the ongoing investigation into the death of the former Haitian president.
The letter, of which The duty took note, refers to an instruction marked by “rights violations” and “clear interference” targeting lawyers and judges in Haiti.
She mentions among other things the assassination of the clerk Ernst Lafortune, assigned to the office of the first examining magistrate Mathieu Chanlatte, two days after the opening last August of the investigation into the murder of the president. The judge had, in the wake of this murder, waived the hearing of the case for reasons of “personal convenience”.
Since these events, the vehicle of the new investigating judge, Garry Orélien, has been the target of gunfire twice in the streets of the capital, and his office was burgled last October. These “acts of intimidation against justice personnel”, we can read, also targeted Justice of the Peace Clément Noël, who noted the death of Jovenel Moïse and who, last August, was the victim of threats, had to leave his personal residence to get himself and his family to safety.
“We requested an administrative and judicial investigation after the break-in into the office of the examining magistrate,” comments Joverlein Moïse. But we never got an answer. This burglary, like the continuing threats and intimidation, is proof that the people responsible for my father’s assassination are still at large. They are not interrogated and are still powerful enough to manage to attack the Haitian justice system. “
Last week, the Haitian judicial authorities announced the arrest in Turkey of a new suspect in the murder of Jovenel Moïse, perpetrated on the night of July 6 to 7 in his official residence by a battalion of 28 mercenaries of foreign origin . This is Haitian businessman Samir Handal, a wealthy property owner from Port-au-Prince. He would be linked to the doctor Christian Emmanuel Sanon, arrested in the days following the assassination of the former president and suspected of having financed and orchestrated the operation from Florida where he resided.
A total of 40 people were arrested as part of the investigation. “But the centerpieces of the puzzle are still free”, estimates Joverlein Moïse, while agreeing that a “lack of will” of the justice of his country or a “lack of instruments” would explain why one is not again went “looking for the right people”.
The Haitian judicial machine is not working very well. Political influences, like those of those responsible for my father’s assassination, are still very strong.
Jovenel Moïse tragically lost his life, while Haiti sank further into political and social chaos under his presidency. His legitimacy was challenged even as he attempted to carry out constitutional reform, in the absence of an elected Parliament. In recent years, suspicions of corruption and embezzlement of public funds hung over him, in a country handed over to the ascending power of criminalized armed groups whose influence has grown after the assassination of the former president.
“We are still in a context of political, economic and social catastrophe which allowed the assassination that my father,” says Joverlein Moïse. And as after the natural disasters that struck Haiti, international assistance should also be manifested in this context. “
For the first time, publicly, the son of the former president of Haiti is also calling on Canada, which, according to him, has a role to play in the ongoing investigation into the death of Jovenel Moïse. “He is a friend of Haiti and of democracy,” he said. The Haitian community is very important here and it expects Canada to take strong action to strengthen democracy and the rule of law in Haiti. “
He adds: “A democratically elected president has been assassinated, and it is incomprehensible that the allies, the friends of freedom, remain silent on what is happening. “
With the help of his lawyers, the young man also hopes to shake this silence. “From the moment when the foreign state authorities will feel concerned by what is happening in Haiti, it will finally give us the hope that the people who ordered this assassination will be arrested, tried and even sentenced for what” They did. “
Joverlein Moïse says, moreover, that he acts, with his lawyers, like a “son indebted to [son] father ”, but also as a“ citizen indebted to [son] country ”to prevent the assassination of Jovenel Moïse from also getting lost in chaos.
“There is nothing I can do to bring my father back to life,” he said. But I can do everything to make July 7, 2021, history, for future generations, and even for those who would also consider committing the assassination of a current president, as the starting point of a huge quest for justice which convicted all those responsible. Not like the day of an unpunished crime. “