Armed bandits control Haiti’s largest courthouse after violent takeover
SWAT and other specialized units of the Haiti National Police were moving in and out of Portau-Prince’s main courthouse as they tried to figure out how to carry an oversized safe with sensitive documents from some of the country’s most high-profile criminal cases out of the former U.S. government building onto a vehicle to transport it elsewhere.
In one of the courtrooms, six jailed defendants, including the most recent head of the National Penitentiary, were being questioned about a check cashing scheme. All faced accusations that they had been cashing the checks of police officers who had abandoned their posts, and had been using their debit cards for years.
It seemed like a normal day inside Haiti’s sometimes working, sometimes dysfunctional, sometimes closed court system. That is, until a notorious gang decided to take it over.
Over the course of two hours on June 10, courthouse employees, lawyers and government prosecutors would be subjected to a barrage of high-powered bullets from the heavily armed “5 segonn” — Five Seconds — gang that has now decided to unleash its lethal havoc on the already broken system.
The brazen attack, which left at least one person wounded and part of the courthouse reportedly in flames, is the latest gauntlet thrown down to the government and the international community as gangs continue their takeover of the country. It is also the latest act of unbridled banditry in a crisis-racked Haiti that was already unraveling even before last year’s assassination of its former president, Jovenel Moïse. The nation appears on the brink of anarchy as the ongoing criminality by gangs dismantle what is left of Haiti’s institutions.
“Imagine driving by a public building in your community where armed thugs are now openly sitting on the stairs of a deserted courthouse in close vicinity of a police precinct filled with outgunned policemen,” said Bernard Gousse, a former justice minister and one of the Caribbean nation’s leading law experts.
The violent gang attack unfolded on the same day that members of the United Nations Security Council in New York received U.N. Secretary General António Guterres’ latest report on the dire situation in Haiti. Due to the timing, there is no mention of the takeover of the courthouse, which includes the Court of First Instance of Port-au-Prince. However, Guterres highlighted recent food, water and medicine shortages in the overcrowded prison system and the paralysis of the judiciary, among other concerns.
“The Haitian judicial system continues to be plagued by corruption, insufficient resources and a lack of political will, all of which have helped to bring judicial proceedings to a standstill,” he wrote, while advocating for the “timely entry into force” of the country’s new controversial penal and criminal procedure codes, scheduled to become effective June 24.
“It is essential that all of the country’s courts resume their proper functioning, not only to advance the investigation and adjudication of the myriad of pending cases, but also to accelerate ongoing efforts to address the perennial problem of pretrial detention,” the report said.
On Thursday, the courthouse was still in the hands of the gang. Human rights advocates, lawyers and the head of the National Association of Haitian Clerks all agree that while this is only the latest in a string of burglaries and other attacks on the justice system — it is by far the worst.
“They have taken the justice palace hostage,” said Ainé Martin, who heads the national court clerks association.
Among what are currently under the gang’s control: the offices of the Dean of the Civil Court of Port-au-Prince, who is also president of the court and assigns judges to cases; 28 investigating judges and 18 acting prosecutors; and the office of the chief government commissioner who is responsible for applying Haiti’s criminal code. Also under the control of the bandits are registries, archives of the Court of Port-au-Prince, the library and certain offices of the Court of Appeal of Port-au-Prince.
Martin said he was inside when the “spectacular” attack started.
“Everyone came running inside saying armed men are surrounding us. No one knew what to do,” he said. “Judges and lawyers started climbing a wall to get out.”
Police sent two armored vehicles to evacuate other employees, which they managed to do even while their forces lost a gun battle with the heavily armed gang. Martin, who had not long entered the building, said he managed to get to his car and took off in the direction of the port authority.