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Haitian police unmask killers of  President Moïse, kill 3, arrest many others

With uncommon despatch, the police in Haiti have uncovered a group of 28 foreign mercenaries, that took part in the assassination of the tiny country’s president, President Jovenel Moïse.

Following a gun duel with the police, most of the suspects were apprehended and detained at a house where they took refuge in the capital, Port-au-Prince.

Whereas three of the assassins were shot dead by the police during the bloody face-off, eight more suspects are still on the run.

The suspects were paraded in front of media alongside a cache of seized weapons while police continue the hunt for the masterminds behind the attack.

A group of gunmen had stormed the president’s home in the capital, Port-au-Prince, and shot him and his wife.

 Moïse was found lying on his back with 12 bullet wounds and a gouged eye, and died at the scene, according to authorities but Martina, his wife, was seriously injured and has been flown to Florida for treatment, where she is said to be in a stable condition.

According to the police the assassins included 15 Colombians and two Haitian-Americans.

Angry citizens had joined in the search for the gunmen, and helped police track down some of them who were hiding in bushes.

“We Haitians are appalled, we do not accept it,” one man told AFP news agency. “We are ready to help because we need to know who is behind this, their names, their background so that justice can do its job.”

The crowd later set fire to three of the suspects’ cars and destroyed evidence. The police chief called for calm, saying the public should not take the law into their own hands.

However, Taiwan confirmed that 11 of the suspects, who had broken into one of its embassy courtyards were arrested there.

It is not yet clear why President Noise was killed but the country’s interim Prime Minister, Claude Joseph, told the BBC that he suspected that the 53-year-old president could have been a victim of those opposed to his fight against corruption.

At the news conference on Thursday, police also showed reporters Colombian passports. “Foreigners came to our country to kill the president,” Charles said, as the suspects sat on the floor behind him in handcuffs.

Colombia’s government has confirmed that at least six of the suspects appeared to be retired members of its military. It has pledged to assist Haiti with its investigation efforts.

The US state department, meanwhile, said it could not confirm if any of its citizens had been detained.

However US and Canadian media are reporting that one of the dual citizens arrested, James Solages, 35, is from Florida and was a former bodyguard at the Canadian embassy in Haiti.

An investigating judge told local media that Mr Solages and the other US citizen, named as Joseph Vincent, had said they were there as translators for the mercenaries, after finding the job on the

Internet.

“The mission was to arrest President Jovenel Moïse… and not to kill him,” Judge Clément Noël told Haiti’s Le Nouvelliste newspaper.

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