Appeals court orders release of alleged coup plotters in Haiti

A Haitian appeals court ordered the release Wednesday of a senior police official and more than a dozen other individuals arrested in an alleged coup against President Jovenel Moïse, an attorney for the group confirmed.

The arrests took place during a sting operation in Port-au-Prince on Feb. 7, the day Haiti’s opposition has argued that Moïse’s presidential term ended, a claim he refutes. Many of those detained, including a sitting Supreme Court judge, were still in their pajamas when they were accused of trying to kill and overthrow Moïse.

The arrests triggered anti-government protests, with the president’s detractors dismissing them as political persecution. The nation’s judiciary went on strike when the arrested magistrate, Yvickel Dabrésil, and two other justices were fired after the opposition mentioned them as potential interim replacements for Moïse. The embattled president quickly named the Supreme Court judges’ replacements in a move widely seen as unconstitutional.

Dabrésil, who has denied the accusations, was eventually released on a technicality because high court judges need to go before a special tribunal. In an interview with the Miami Herald after his release, he said seven individuals close to him, including his Haiti National Police detail and friends who were visiting him, were also arrested. They are among those who have been ordered released.

Marc-Antoine Maisonneuve,

a lawyer representing the group, said he and other lawyers argued that the detentions were illegal because Haiti’s constitution doesn’t allow for arrests between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m. unless during a criminal act. The arrests took place between 2 and 3 a.m.

“These were people who were already resting at their homes,” Maisonneuve said. “They were asleep when the unit from the presidential palace embarked at their homes, woke them up and humiliated them.”

Maisonneuve also said the government was unable to present any evidence to support its case. Officials have not yet commented on the release order.

“It was on the basis of our argument that the court ordered the freedom of these prisoners,” Maisonneuve said.

Initially the government said 23 individuals had been arrested, but later lowered the number to 17. Among those who wrote letters in support of their release was U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif.

During a U.S. House Foreign Affairs hearing on Haiti, Waters told fellow colleagues that among those jailed was Dr. Marie Antoinette Gautier, a doctor and former presidential candidate, and her husband Louis Buteau, a well-known agronomist.

“They picked them up in the middle of the night and took them to jail,” she said.

Catherine Buteau, 33, who has been actively pushing for her parents’ freedom, along with her aunt, (Haiti National Police Inspector Marie Louise Gauthier), said although the verdict called for all 17 prisoners’ immediate release, as of late Wednesday afternoon, they were still being held.

“I am afraid because obviously the situation is not better in Haiti and I don’t know what the government will do,” she said. “But I am very happy that justice has prevailed and the justice system has done its job and given justice to those who deserve it.”