HAITI’S interim prime minister yesterday established a committee to organise the funeral proceedings for assassinated president Jovenel Moise, as new search warrants were issued in the “sensitive” investigation. 

“The government currently has two priorities: pursuing the investigation to give justice to the president’s family and organising a national funeral for the president,” said Claude Joseph, whose legitimacy as the executive head of government in Haiti is questioned by the opposition. 

Joseph said any funeral ceremonies would be organised “in agreement with the president’s wife Martine Moise,” who was evacuated to a hospital in Florida after being wounded in the July 7 shooting that killed her husband. 

The committee comprises several ministers, including the head of Moise’s cabinet, the presidency’s secretary-general and the director-general of Haiti’s National Pantheon Museum. 

Joseph remained vague about progress into the criminal investigation of Moise’s killing, calling the matter “very sensitive”. 

“We have to take a lot of precautions,” he said.

Confusion still reigns concerning the circumstances surrounding the assassination of Moise, who was accused of plunging Haiti into a political crisis of authoritarianism. 

And the motives of the group of foreign gunmen who attacked the president are still unknown. 

Haitian police said they had arrested 18 Colombians and three Haitians, including two who also hold dual American citizenship.

The group seemed to have been led by mysterious Florida-based Haitian doctor Christian Emmanuel Sanon, who was also arrested, according to police. 

Police have issued warrants for former official Joseph Felix Badio, former senator John Joel Joseph and businessman Rodolph Jaar. 

They should be considered “armed and dangerous,” Haitian police said. – AFP, July 14, 2021.