With uncommon despatch, the police in Haiti have uncovered a group of 28 foreign mercenaries, that took part in the assassination of the tiny country’s president, President Jovenel Moïse.
Following a gun duel with the police, most of the suspects were apprehended and detained at a house where they took refuge in the capital, Port-au-Prince.
Whereas three of the assassins were shot dead by the police during the bloody face-off, eight more suspects are still on the run.
A group of gunmen had stormed the president’s home in the capital, Port-au-Prince, and shot him and his wife.
According to the police the assassins included 15 Colombians and two Haitian-Americans.
Angry citizens had joined in the search for the gunmen, and helped police track down some of them who were hiding in bushes.
“We Haitians are appalled, we do not accept it,” one man told AFP news agency. “We are ready to help because we need to know who is behind this, their names, their background so that justice can do its job.”
The crowd later set fire to three of the suspects’ cars and destroyed evidence. The police chief called for calm, saying the public should not take the law into their own hands.
However, Taiwan confirmed that 11 of the suspects, who had broken into one of its embassy courtyards were arrested there.
At the news conference on Thursday, police also showed reporters Colombian passports. “Foreigners came to our country to kill the president,” Charles said, as the suspects sat on the floor behind him in handcuffs.
Colombia’s government has confirmed that at least six of the suspects appeared to be retired members of its military. It has pledged to assist Haiti with its investigation efforts.
The US state department, meanwhile, said it could not confirm if any of its citizens had been detained.
However US and Canadian media are reporting that one of the dual citizens arrested, James Solages, 35, is from Florida and was a former bodyguard at the Canadian embassy in Haiti.
An investigating judge told local media that Mr Solages and the other US citizen, named as Joseph Vincent, had said they were there as translators for the mercenaries, after finding the job on the
“The mission was to arrest President Jovenel Moïse… and not to kill him,” Judge Clément Noël told Haiti’s Le Nouvelliste newspaper.
