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Now he is on the surface trying in — and it is an unpleasant view. “The Haitian nation resides the worst political disaster of its historical past,” Vincent informed CNN.
As Haiti’s justice minister, he oversaw the sprawling presidential homicide investigation, which has implicated a Haitian-American pastor, dozens of Colombian employed troopers, and members of Haiti’s personal police drive.
That week, each Claude and Vincent have been abruptly fired.
Talking from an undisclosed location on Friday, Vincent — who says he has gone into hiding since his firing — informed CNN he thought it ought to have been the opposite means round.
“In all critical international locations, as soon as you might be implicated in such an affair, the Prime Minister ought to supply his resignation. He ought to resign. And we’re nonetheless ready for him to resign. As a result of on the evening of the president’s dying, a couple of hours later … he had telephone conversations with the president’s murderer,” Vincent mentioned.
Vincent accuses the Prime Minister of making an attempt to “cowl his tracks” with the firings.
“Once you hearth the prosecutor and the justice minister and also you place in his place somebody who is aware of nothing about justice … what precisely are you making an attempt to do?” he mentioned.
Henry denies having something to do with the killing. Talking to CNN final week, he mentioned he had “no recollection” of a telephone name “or if it passed off.”
‘The republic shall be crushed’
Henry assumed the premiership with worldwide backing a couple of weeks after Moise’s dying, after a short standoff with the earlier Prime Minister. Within the absence of a president, he’ll now lead Haiti till its long-overdue elections — which have been postponed once more, till someday subsequent yr.
The Prime Minister has usually described fixing the homicide case as a private mission. “Nothing. Completely nothing. No political maneuver, no media marketing campaign, no distraction can deter me from this aim to carry justice for President Moise,” Henry informed world leaders on the United Nations Normal Meeting final week.
In response to Henry’s workplace, each Vincent and Claude have been fired for breaking the legislation, which forbids prosecuting prime officers with out permission from the pinnacle of state — presently Henry himself.
However Vincent says he was sacked for refusing to fireplace Claude, which he describes as an ethically inconceivable demand given the continuing investigation. “I informed [Henry], ‘This isn’t potential. We’re going to have issues. The republic shall be crushed if you happen to dismiss the general public prosecutor,” Vincent mentioned.
Quitel, an engineer by coaching, was additionally given Vincent’s job — and is now doing double-duty as head of each Haiti’s inside and justice ministries.
Talking to CNN this weekend, Quitel dismissed the telephone calls in query as inadequate for a warrant in opposition to the Prime Minister, and famous that the investigation underneath Vincent’s management had led to no clear solutions.
“I do not see what could be the motive to ask the Prime Minister to seem earlier than a decide, simply because he had a telephone name,” he mentioned.
“That is clearly one thing that is politically motivated,” he mentioned — a declare Vincent rejects.
A troubled investigation
In July, sources near the case informed CNN they have been troubled by the truth that Justice Ministry staffers had not been given fast entry to crime scenes and key proof, together with surveillance footage from inside and across the president’s mansion in the course of the assault.
Clerks concerned within the case additionally obtained dying threats, forcing some to flee the capital.
On the time, Vincent didn’t reply to requests for remark. Now, nonetheless, he defends his oversight of the months-long probe, insisting investigators have been free to work as they wanted.
He says he too receives dying threats from the armed teams that management giant elements of Port-au-Prince.
The assassination probe is presently with an unbiased investigating decide, who has not publicly referred to as for the Prime Minister’s testimony.
Extra overseas help will even be wanted to shut the case, in accordance with Henry and Vincent — a uncommon level of settlement.
The US and Colombia did ship investigative groups to help within the early days of the investigation. However with fingers now pointing in all instructions, potential overseas companions in Haiti’s intrigue-plagued investigation could really feel cautious of getting concerned.
Correction: An earlier model of this story misspelled the primary identify of Justice Minister Rockfeller Vincent.
Reporting contributed by CNN’s Matt Rivers in Mexico Metropolis and Melissa Bell in Paris.
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