The Haitian officials who are investigating the assassination of Haiti President Jovenel Moïse have received death threats since the investigation began.
According to a report from CNN, one message warned: “Hey clerk, get ready for a bullet in your head, they gave you an order and you keep on doing sh*t.”
Another read: “I see you keep going on searches in the president’s case, they told you to take out two names and you refuse. I am calling you and you refuse but I know your every move.”
More than two dozen people were reportedly involved with Moïse’s July 7 assassination in his Port-au-Prince home, including two Haitian Americans and Columbian ex-military. First Lady Martine Moïse, his wife, was critically injured, transferred to Miami for treatment.
The National Association of Haitian Clerks, who is leading the investigation into president’s killing, says the threats began almost immediately after the probe began.
The country’s Internal Justice Ministry provided CNN with copies of several documents, including unheard testimonies and statements from investigators. The report notes that in addition to the death threats, other roadblocks have been met, including difficulty accessing the crime scenes, witnesses and evidence.
The justice of the peace who officially documented Moïse’s home and body went into hiding immediately afterward, he said. “As I am talking to you now, I am not home,” Carl Henry Destin told CNN. “I have to go into hiding somewhere faraway to talk with you.” He said that he received multiple threatening phone calls.
Destin said Moïse’s residence was “riddled with bullets,” contending that he saw “12 visible bullet wounds in the president’s body … they smashed his left eye, but both were still open.”
The assassination has thrown the vulnerable country into further disarray, even as it already battles rampant criminal violence, economic deprivation and political instability.
The National Association of Haitian Clerks penned an open letter on July 12 seeking “national and international” attention to their plight and asking for action and protection. U.S. President Joe Biden has since maintained that America will only boost its Haiti embassy’s security in the wake of Moïse’s murder and the island nation’s precariousness.
Biden said earlier in July that directing the American military to Haiti was “not on the agenda” as U.S. forces are preparing to withdraw from Afghanistan.
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