US Security Chief Denies Involvement In Assassination Of Haitian President Jovenel Moise

The late President of Haiti Jovenel Moise. (Instagram/@jovenelmoise)

JAKARTA - The head of a security company based in Miami, United States (US), denied his involvement in the assassination plot of the late Haitian President Jovenel Moise.

Antonio Intriago, head of CTI Security which employs Colombian bodyguards, denied involvement, saying his company had been duped and said the presidential guard was to blame.

President Jovenel Moise was killed last month at his home in Port-au-Prince, Haiti in the early hours of the morning, with a group of former soldiers from Colombia arrested in the attack.

Haitian officials said Intriago had hired former soldiers, which he indirectly confirmed in a statement issued through his lawyer in Miami.

"Mr Intriago was not aware of and was not involved in this tragic event," his lawyer at Lacayo Law Firm said, marking Intriago's first public statement on the matter.

According to the statement, Intriago believed the security contractor he employed as a personal bodyguard in Haiti was unarmed. However, there was a last-minute change of plans and the men were asked to issue an arrest warrant for Moise.

Intriago's attorneys attached the warrant with their statement. The warrant was signed by the judge and dated February 2019.

"When they entered the presidential residence, they found the president dead, his wife injured, and the house ransacked. It is our belief that the president's own bodyguards betrayed him," the statement said.

"Mr Intriago was the victim of an elaborate scheme," the statement continued, arguing that the contractor was not involved in the assassination of President Moise.

In Colombia, the family and colleagues of Intriago employees told reporters the men had been hired to act as bodyguards.

The murder case of President Jovenel Moise continues. Most recently, the former Supreme Court Justice who was ousted by the late President Moise in February because of a coup plot, Coq-Thelot, was named by the Haiti Police as a suspect.

Police said the suspect met with a group of Colombian mercenaries accused of killing President Moise, along with confessing they met Coq-Thelot.

Previously, the Haitian Police also arrested the Haitian Presidential Security Coordinator (Paspampres) Jean Laguel Civil, who was suspected of being involved in the assassination plot. Reynold Georges' lawyer appointed by Civil denied his client was guilty.

"The real culprits are those who gave these Colombians permission to enter Haiti, the police must arrest them," said Georges, referring to the Colombian mercenaries who had already been arrested.

For information, President Jovenel Moise was assassinated in a brutal attack on July 7 in the middle of the night at his private residence in Port-au-Prince, by a group of people who were mostly Colombian mercenaries. His wife, who was also the victim of the attack, survived and was then evacuated for further medical treatment.