Prime suspect in assassination of Haitian President Moise dies of COVID complications

A former police commissioner and a prime suspect in the assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moise was died due to COVID-19 complications on Thursday, news agency Sputnik reported citing a local media report. Gilbert Dragon, the accused, breathed last while the jail authorities were shifting him from pre-trial detention to the hospital. Some media reports also claimed the suspect died of cardiac arrest and added that the 52-year-old was suffering from COVID-19 complications. According to the media outlet Haiti24, his death was confirmed by Pierre Rene Francois, an official from the Penitentiary Administration.

Subsequently, more than 40 people were arrested including three police officers for their alleged involvement in the killing. While addressing a press conference in July, Director-General Leon Charles told reporters, "There was infiltration in the police." Though the officer did not name the infiltrators involved in the brutal assassination, the Haitian National Police said in a report released after a month revealed Dragon's involvement in the planning of Moise's assassination. The police said he had held a meeting with other suspects on the night of the killing. However, his wife claimed Dragon was at home when the President was killed by a group of armed men. Though days after the murder, Prime Minister Ariel Henry, a neurosurgeon and former Cabinet minister-- sworn as the new prime minister with promises of providing justice to the slain President but the police authorities are yet to solve the mysterious death.

Who was Moise?

On July 7, this year, Haitian President Jovenel Moïse, who ruled Haiti for more than four years, was assassinated at his private home during a highly coordinated attack by an extremely trained and heavily armed group. Subsequently, more than 40 people were arrested including three high-ranking police officers in connection with the assassination of Haiti President Jovenel Moise. The soft-spoken Moise seemed like an unlikely politician. According to the reports published in local media outlets, his father was a small-time farmer and his mother helped sell their crops and worked as a seamstress. Mouse won the 2015 presidential vote. However, the results were thrown out following allegations of fraud. Later, he won the November 2016 elections. He took office in February 2017. 

Image: AP