The casket of slain Haitian president Jovenel Moise at his funeral on July 23, 2021
The casket of slain Haitian president Jovenel Moise at his funeral on July 23, 2021
The casket of slain Haitian president Jovenel Moise at his funeral on Jul 23, 2021. (File photo: AFP/Valerie Baeriswyl)

Security chief Jean Laguel Civil is suspected of involvement in the plot to that saw Moise killed at his home in the middle of the night by armed commandos who bypassed the president’s guards without firing a shot.

Civil had already been placed in solitary confinement at a prison in Delmas, near Port-au-Prince.

“I can confirm that Jean Laguel Civil was arrested Monday by police as part of the investigation into the assassination of president Jovenel Moise,” police spokeswoman Marie Michelle Verrier told AFP.

Port-au-Prince commissioner Bed-ford Claude had already ordered immigration authorities to prohibit four police officers, responsible for Moise’s security, from leaving the country.

Police on Monday also issued a warrant for Wendell Coq Thelot, a judge for the highest court in the country who had been fired by Moise.

Details of the assassination remain unclear, but newly installed Prime Minister Ariel Henry has promised to bring Moise’s killers to justice.

Police have arrested some 20 Colombian mercenaries as part of the plot that they say was organised by a group of Haitians with foreign ties.