Haitian prosecutor fired after asking judge to charge prime minister in president's assassination

Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry.
(Image credit: Valerie Baeriswyl/AFP via Getty Images)

Haitian prosecutor Bed-Ford Claude on Tuesday asked a judge to file charges against Prime Minister Ariel Henry in connection with the July 7 assassination of President Jovenel Moïse. Later in the day, Henry sent Claude a termination letter.

Claude requested that Henry, a 71-year-old neurosurgeon, be charged with assassination, conspiracy against the state, and armed robbery, and not be allowed to leave Haiti. In his indictment request, Claude said that shortly after Moïse was killed, Henry spoke on the phone twice with the main suspect in the assassination, former Justice Ministry official Joseph Badio. "There are enough compromised elements against the prime minister to indict him, pure and simple," Claude wrote. Badio, who was fired from Haiti's anti-corruption unit two months before the assassination, has been in hiding since July.

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.