Haiti prosecutor replaced after calling for PM to be charged in killing

A Haitian prosector was removed from his position after asking for current Prime Minister Ariel Henry to be charged in the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse, The Associated Press reported.

Port-au-Prince prosecutor Bed-Ford Claude filed a request Monday that asked Henry to be questioned for speaking with a key suspect hours after Moïse’s killing 

Moïse was assassinated by a group of assailants who raided his private residence in  July. His wife, Martine, was critically wounded. 

Moïse appointed Henry to serve as Haiti’s prime minister shortly before his death, the AP reported. 

According to the two-page document, Claude said that Henry made two phone calls to Joseph Badio from a Port-au-Prince hotel. 

Badio, a former government employee, was fired in May due to accusations of violating unspecified ethical rules, the AP reported. 

Claude said that Bodie was still in the vicinity of Moïse’s presidential residence during the seven-minute calls, the document said. 

“There are enough compromising elements … to prosecute Henry and ask for his outright indictment,” Claude told the judge. 

Hours after asking the judge to charge Henry, the prime minister replaced Claude with Frantz Louis Juste, a prosecutor who oversaw the case of an orphanage fire that killed a dozen of children, the AP reported. 

Haiti’s Justice Minister Rockfeller Vincent ordered authorities to boost security for Claude after receiving multiple threats in the last five days. 

Henry said in a meeting that his main purpose is to bring stability back in the country, adding that “no distraction” would end his mission. 

 “The real culprits, the intellectual authors and coauthor and sponsor of the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse will be found and brought to justice and punished for their crimes,” Henry said. 

More than 40 people have been arrested and charged in connection with the assassination, the AP noted.