In a letter addressed to the Dean of the Court of First Instance of Port-au-Prince on August 26, the National Human Rights Defense Network requested the appointment of an investigating judge to relaunch the PetroCaribe case.
In this correspondence, the RNDDH stressed that “more than three (3) years after the Public Prosecutor’s Office of this jurisdiction, seized of a complaint from the Haitian State for acts of corruption, embezzlement, bribery and money laundering relating to the management of PetroCaribe funds, had, by indictment to inform dated March 13, 2019, requested the investigating office to open and conduct an investigation into this case, it changed its mind in its final indictment dated June 16, 2021, by which it asks without the slightest embarrassment the investigating magistrate to stay the investigation.”
“Even though it was not bound by the prosecution’s indictment, it was quickly adopted by the investigating magistrate Ramoncite ACCIMÉ who, however, had paraded a whole range of personalities before his Criminal Investigation Chamber for a long time,” recalls the RNDDH.
The Network goes further to specify that information reaching them indicates “it is on the basis of an unhealthy and shameless arrangement between the government commissioner at the time, Maître Bed-Ford CLAUDE and the uncertified investigating magistrate Maître Ramoncite ACCIMÉ, that the latter decided to bury the PetroCaribe case in the meanders of impunity enjoyed by State officials, who are nevertheless bound by the principle of accountability in the name of transparency and good governance.”
The National Human Rights Defense Network reminds the Dean that the country was gangsterized in 2018 “because citizens dared to demand accountability for the use of PetroCaribe funds.” The organization cites the La Saline massacre perpetrated on November 13 and 14, 2018 as proof.
Given that the investigating magistrate who was on the case was not certified by the High Council of the Judicial Police in the last certification report, the RNDDH requests the appointment of a new investigating judge in charge of this case of national interest “in order to force the former state officials rightly or wrongly implicated in this major corruption scandal, to account to the nation for their management through a fair and equitable trial, under the presidency of an independent and impartial judge.”
This designation could revive the investigation into the PetroCaribe case, according to the National Human Rights Defense Network.
By: Daniel Zephyr
