PORT AU PRINCE, Haiti (CMC) – The National Police of Haiti (PNH) has confirmed that 33 police officers have been recommended for dismissal as the investigations continue into the July 7, 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moise.
Moise 53, was gunned down at his private residence overlooking the capital, and while police say a group of mercenaries, most of them Colombians, was behind the attack, which they suspect a Haitian doctor of ordering as part of a plot to become president, no one has yet been formally charged with the murder of the Haitian leader.
READ: Haiti plunged into uncertainty after president assassinated
The authorities have detained dozens of people in connection with the assassination and a number of others are being sought. But the investigation has been slow, and the exact details about the people who carried out the plan, those behind it and their real motives are still not clear.
PNH spokesman, Divisional Inspector Gary Desrosiers, told a news conference that the file on the assassination of President Moïse is at the top of the list of cases being processed at the Central Directorate of Judicial Police (DCPJ).
In addition he announced that the General Inspectorate had recommended the dismissal of 33 police officers and the layoff of three others as part of the administrative investigation into the assassination of the President.
Moise had been shot 12 times and had bullet wounds to his forehead and several to his torso. One of the judges conducting the investigation said his left eye had been gouged out and bones in his arm and in his ankle had been broken.
Desrosiers told reporters that the police, would very soon engage criminal gangs and that a plan is being developed “with clear and precise objectives” to regain control of the Palace of Justice in Port-au-Prince.
The authorities said the Village-de-Dieu gang “5 seconds” has since June 10 taken over control of the Palace of Justice, and as a result, several matters have been transferred to the Peace Court of the southern section of Port-au-Prince.
The “Je Klere” Foundation has been urging the police and the army to dislodge the bandits, recover stolen state property and restore the magistrates to their offices.
Desrosiers confirmed that the materials and equipment to strengthen the operational capacity of the PNH will arrive soon, without elaborating.
“For strategic reasons, we cannot reveal the date of the arrival of the materials and equipment,” he said
But last Wednesday, after having received authorization from the Department of State, the Haitian government disbursed US$12 million to a foreign firm for the acquisition of a large batch of materials and equipment including weapons and ammunition for the PNH to enable it to fight effectively against organized crime in the country.
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