Martine Moïse’s lawyers respond to indictment

PORT AU PRINCE. Haiti, CMC – Lawyers representing Martine Moïse are questioning the motive behind the decision of an investigative judge, who said he found sufficient evidence linking her and 49 other people to the July 2021 assassination of her husband, President Jovenel Moise.

In a letter sent to Edler Guillaume, the Government Commissioner at the Court of First Instance of Port-au-Prince, attorney Emmanuel Jeanty of  the law firm, “EXPERTUS FIRME D’AVOCATS,” is casting doubt regarding the order of Judge Walther W. Voltaire.

“Furthermore, it is common knowledge that the mandate of the investigating judge had already expired before the dissemination on online platforms of this alleged order, devoid of any authentication,” Jeanty said.

“This temporal inconsistency justifies reasonable doubts about the integrity of the judicial process and raises concerns about the validity of these events. It is therefore imperative that a sheaf of light be projected onto this paradoxical situation in an attempt to preserve the integrity of the judicial system and guarantee respect for the fundamental rights of all parties involved in this case,” he added.

Earlier this week, the investigative judge said there is enough evidence to charge 49 people, including Mrs Moise with his assassination at his private residence on July, 7, 2021.

Voltaire is the fifth magistrate to have probed Moise’s assassination and former prime minister Claude Joseph, who has also been indicted,  is accusing the current head of government, Dr. Ariel Henry of  “weaponizing the Haitian justice system” by targeting him and the former first lady.

“Ariel Henry, the main beneficiary or the mastermind of the July 7th coup leading to the tragic killing of president Jovenel Moïse, is weaponizing the Haitian justice system, prosecuting political opponents like me. It’s a classic coup d’état.

“They failed to kill me and Martine Moïse on July 7th 2021, now they are using the Haitian justice system to advance their Machiavellian agenda.  The Haitian people, however, won’t be distracted. I will not give up my fight against a government that has been killing the Haitian people. Ariel Henry has to go because he has failed the Haitian people,” Joseph said in a statement.

On Monday, Judge Voltaire sent his 122-page order to a prosecutor who will now notify the defendants about the indictment.

The indictments came after two and a half years and five judges investigating the murder of Moise.  His wife was also injured during the incident and had to be flown to the United States for medical treatment. A number of former Colombian military officials have been arrested in connection with the murder and are awaiting trial in a Haitian jail.

The United States have also prosecuted several other people, including Haitian nationals and in his indictment report, the judge has decided not to pursue criminal charges against most of the 11 defendants named in a parallel US indictment in Miami, citing double jeopardy.

But he has named Christian Emmanuel Sanon, a politically ambitious Haitian-American pastor, who is accused of plotting a coup to rule Haiti that led to Moïse’s death. In the  indictment, Sanon is described as the “intellectual author” of the assassination plot along with Joseph Félix Badio, a former government consultant.

In indicting the former first lady, the judge  notes that she not only refused two invitations to appear before the judge’s chambers to answer questions about her husband’s killing, but her statements about “are so ensnared by contradictions that they ultimately discredited themselves.”

In the letter to Guillaume, the law firm representing the former first lady, notes that at the time of writing, a copy of “a referral order emanating from the office of investigating judge… has gone viral on social networks which… is devoid of the essential elements of legality and authenticity, namely the signature of the investigating judge and the seal of his office.
”As a complaining party, engaged in the legal process, they expect that the meaning of any important decision will be transmitted to them, in accordance with established procedures, through their election of domicile,” the law firm added.

It said that in the event that “this unauthenticated copy of the order is not a counterfeit, the chronology of this copy once again raises legitimate questions in the conduct of this trial.

“As the content, the spirit, the letter and the appearance of such a monumental work for an entire Nation due to its importance and the secrecy with which it should be cloaked, can be put into circulation on social networks even before its official version,” the law firm noted warning the Commissioner that the judicial system “can no longer support a new scandal”.

In addition to Martine Moïse, the judge indicted Joseph and ex-police chief Léon Charles. They are among 10 former government officials or allies of the president who, according to te judge had “an active participation” in the events leading up to his death.

Initially Haitian investigators had arrested 44 people, including 20 Colombians, 19 Haitian police officers and four individuals in civilian clothes. The Colombians have said they do not know who killed the president and have questioned the authenticity of his wife’s injuries during the attack.

Voltaire’s recommendations are the result of dozens of interrogations and after he visited the crime scene with FBI agents. He said it was clear that the first lady could not have hidden under the bed as she asserted.

The judge said that there was sufficient evidence to pursue charges against the head of the president’s security detail, Dimitri Hérard, and his boss, Jean Laguel Civil. Civil is accused of paying bribes to members of presidential security detail to either not show up to work, or to stand down on the day of the attack. He denied the allegations during his interrogation by the judge.

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