PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI — Five of the former Colombian soldiers imprisoned without trial for the assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moise in July have told CNN that they have been framed.
The men have been kept in cramped, “visibly horrific” conditions, with poor sanitation and rats seen scampering across the grounds, and they say they have only been offered junior lawyers who could not properly communicate with them due to not speaking Spanish.
Their version of events is that they were hired as private security by a company called CTU, with one man specifying they were told the security was for a “Haiti presidential candidate.”
After living and working together at a compound in Port-au-Prince for around a month, on the night of President Moise’s killing, the group formed a convoy that travelled up Pelerin Road to the presidential compound.
Shortly after this, President Moise was fatally shot and his wife Martine Moise was seriously injured and, here, the men imprisoned for the incident told CNN they were simply “useful idiots” who “did not commit this crime.” However, when asked for further details of who was responsible they said that they feared for their lives if they were to offer details now.
Instead they preferred to speak about what happened after the killing, when all five of the men interviewed by CNN left President Moise’s house in the same convoy they drove up with.
First, the men say they were boxed-in by Haitian security forces which forced them out of their cars and into a nearby building where they took shelter for some time.
Hours later, they fled out the back of that building and up a steep hill, where they entered the Taiwan embassy.
Taiwan’s foreign ministry says at this point the men tied up two guards, but subsequently they were tracked down and gave themselves up to security forces.
Once in custody, the men allege that they began to be severely beaten, as they were held in an undisclosed location and handcuffed in pairs for more than three weeks.
The men then say during this time they were made to fear for their families’ safety, before being forced to sign declarations that they could not read under duress, although a Haitian federal government spokesperson said they were provided translators so they understood what to sign.
That contradiction creates just the latest in a huge series of unanswered questions around the Moise assassination and what happened both before and after it.
SOURCES: CNN, Associated Press, The New York Times, i24 News, Reuters,
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