PORT AU PRINCE, Haiti – Prime Minister Ariel Henry has reiterated a commitment to bring to justice, those responsible for the July 7 assassination of President Jovenel Moise as he again dismisses allegations that he had spoken by telephone with one of the main suspects on the night of the killing.
Haiti's Prime Minister Ariel Henry attends the signing ceremony of the "Political Agreement for a peaceful and effective governance of the interim period" with the opposition, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. September 11, 2021. REUTERS/Ralph Tedy ErolA statement from the Office of the Prime Minister said that it wanted to “clarify, once and for all, this affair of telephone communication between the Prime Minister and the so-called Joseph Félix Badio” and also to put an end to “the noise orchestrated at the national and international level” around telephone conversations which took place the night of the assassination.
Earlier this week, the country’s chief prosecutor, Bed-Ford Claude, announced that he asked a judge investigating the assassination of Moise to charge Prime Minister Henry with involvement in the case over alleged phone calls he made to the main suspect.
The prosecutor is accusing Prime Minister Henry of communicating with Joseph Badio, a fugitive who once worked at Haiti’s Ministry of Justice and at the government’s anti-corruption unit and is now being sought by the authorities in connection with the assassination.
Claude has also requested that Prime Minister Henry be barred from leaving Haiti “due to the gravity of the facts exposed.
“There are enough compromising elements … to prosecute Henry and ask for his outright indictment,” Claude wrote in the order.
Claude had invited Prime Minister Henry to explain to the authorities the content of two phone calls with Badio adding that evidence had shown that Badio was in the vicinity of the president’s home when the calls were made.
The calls lasted a total of seven minutes and Henry was at the Hotel Montana in Port-au-Prince at the time, Claude also said, noting that a government official tweeted last month that Henry told him he never spoke with Badio.
But in the statement, the Office of the Prime Minister said that on the night of the assassination, Prime Minister Henry had “received countless calls, of all kinds, from people who, upon hearing the terrible news, were concerned for his personal safety.
“It is therefore difficult today after all the upheavals that followed, without referring to the telephone records, to specify the names of all those who called him, or even the nature of their conversation.”
The statement said that “it remains understood that the fault is personal and that conversations with individuals against whom charges are brought, can in no case be used to incriminate anyone.
“The public commitment made, on many occasions, by Dr. Ariel Henry to do everything possible to ensure that the authors, co-authors and sponsors of this odious crime are identified, brought to justice and punished for their crime”
On Monday, Haiti’s Office of Citizen Protection, an ombudsman-like body, demanded Prime Minister Henry step down and urged him to appear in the prosecutor’s office.
The authorities have detained more than 40 suspects, including 18 former Colombian soldiers and three Haitian Americans in connection with the assassination.
