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Haiti's President Did Not Order Ex-Senator's Arrest, Ambassador Tells VOA

Sandra Lemaire

   WASHINGTON - President Jovenel Moise did not order the arrest of former
   opposition Senator Nenel Cassy last week, Haiti's ambassador to the
   U.S., Bocchit Edmond, says.

   "To make it clear, there is no truth in that. President Moise did not
   order the arrest of Mr. Cassy," Edmond told VOA in an exclusive
   interview. "The arrest was made onsite at the rally. The rally turned
   violent. The national police had to step in."

   But Cassy offered a different version of the events in a conversation
   with reporters after his release from a Miragoane jail on Jan. 22.

   Cassy, who represented former President Jean Bertrand Aristide's
   Lavalas party in parliament and is a native of the region, says he
   traveled to Miragoane, a coastal town in Haiti's western department on
   Jan. 21 to seek the release of political activists who had been
   arrested during an anti-government protest earlier in the day. They
   were charged with committing "flagrant delinquent acts" but were
   released with Cassy, hours after being detained.

   "The attorney general arrived at the police station where lawyer Andre
   (Michel) and I were talking to the departmental director. Two policemen
   were present, and Andre was asking them to release the activists. When
   he (Jean Ernest Muscadin, the attorney general for Miragoane) arrived,
   he said, 'We're going to arrest the senator.' He said, 'The president
   of the republic has asked me to arrest Senator Cassy.' When I asked
   him, 'Which president? Jovenel?' He responded, 'Yes, Jovenel said I
   must arrest you today,'" Cassy said.

   The former senator said when he asked Muscadin what he was to be
   charged with, he was told, "This is an order from the president."

   "He (the attorney general) told me tremendous pressure had been exerted
   by the president to make the arrest and he (Moise) threatened to fire
   him if he didn't do it," Cassy said. "'If I went against the order, I'd
   have to flee the country,' he told me."

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