PORT AU PRINCE, Haiti - Haiti’s permanent representative to the Organization of American States (OAS), Léon Charles, has resigned after he was named among 51 people by a judge investigating the assassination of President Jovenel Moise in July 2021.
In his February 21, 2024 resignation letter to the Minister of Foreign Affairs Jean Victor Généus, the former director general of the National Police of Haiti (PNH), said he had been “implicated in an absolutely unjust and slanderous manner by the order of the investigating judge responsible for investigating the assassination” of President Moïse, who was gunned down at his private residence overlooking the capital, Port au prince on July 7, 2021.
Charles said that although the order of the judge, Walther W. Voltaire, has not yet been served on him, he was stepping down “to vigorously combat, by all legal means, the fanciful accusations brought against me in order to have my innocence recognized and my honor cleared”.
He said his resignation would also allow him not be to “limited today by my status as a diplomat in the service of the Government ;”I have the advantage of submitting my resignation as Permanent Representative of the Republic of Haiti to the Organization of American States. This resignation takes effect upon receipt of this letter,” he wrote.
Charles is not the most high-ranking official implicated in the assassination of Moise, with the authorities already detaining several former Colombian soldiers in connection with his murder.
Earlier this week, lawyers representing Martine Moïse are questioning the motive behind the decision of the investigative judge, who said he found sufficient evidence linking her and other people to the assassination of her husband.
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.
Among the others named are Christian Emmanuel Sanon, a politically ambitious Haitian-American pastor, described as the “intellectual author” of the assassination plot along with Joseph Félix Badio, a former government consultant.
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.
