According to a senior official, a US citizen of Haitian descent has been arrested in connection with the assassination of Haiti’s President Jovenel Mossé.
The Washington Post was informed by Mathias Pierre, Haiti’s Minister for Election and Inter-partisan Relations, that one person in custody is believed to be a US citizen. The four other suspects were killed, confirmed the authorities.
Mathias Pierre, Haiti’s minister of elections and inter-party relations, identified US citizen named James Solages, as one of two survivors of a police shootout in the streets near the president’s house.
Pierre said an angry crowd was protesting outside the city’s police station where suspects were detained.
📹 #Haiti– Yetkililer, polisin yerlerini tespit ettiği şüphelilere yönelik operasyonunda 2 kişinin de gözaltına alındığını açıklamıştı. pic.twitter.com/926T6fEL3f
— Mete Sohtaoğlu (@metesohtaoglu) July 8, 2021
Mr. Pierre is said to have shown a footage of the two suspects being arrested to the jeers of a nearby mob, while the mob surrounded the police station where they were being held.
“The special units are trying to protect the police station, because the population is very mad and is trying to get to them, to burn them,” he said. “We’re trying to avoid that.”
UPDATE: Two men believed to be Haitian Americans, one of whom is said to be a former bodyguard at the Canadian Embassy in Port au Prince, have been arrested in connection with Haiti’s president’s assassination, a senior Haitian official said Thursday, according to the Associated Press.
On Tuesday evening, when the perpetrator fired the head and his wife, who had been hospitalised since, the nation’s Prime Minister revealed that Moïse was attacked and assassinated in his home.
The assassination of Mose early Wednesday has exacerbated the Caribbean country’s spiralling political crisis.
The chief justice of the Supreme Court, who could be expected to help provide stability in a crisis, died recently of COVID-19, according to AP.
