PORT-AU-PRINCE (AP) — An international press freedom group has urged Haiti’s government to move forward in the high-profile case of a slain journalist. The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists said in a statement that Haitian authorities must bring to justice all those responsible for the 2000 killing of radio commentator Jean Leopold Dominique.
An appellate judge has released a recommendation that nine people be charged for their purported roles in the killing.
The same report alleged that the crime’s mastermind is a former lawmaker named Mirlande Liberus Pavert.
Pavert is an ex-senator who belonged to Family Lavalas, the political party of two-time President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Others named in the report also had ties to the party.
The Court of Appeals must now accept or reject the judge’s findings. A senior government official said the investigation has made “some major progress.”
“While we will not interfere with matters relevant to the judicial power, we remain committed to assisting [the government’s judicial investigative agency] in asserting itself as a fully functional and Independent power,” Salim Succar, a special adviser to Prime Minister Laurent Lamothe, said in an email.
No Comment