CNN Exclusive: Port-au-Prince, Haiti — The scent of uncooked sewage and meals waste permeates the air within the entrance to Haiti’s National Penitentiary in downtown Port-au-Prince.
Its supply is the uncovered pipe that guests should stroll over as a liquid combine slides by way of to the road.
A pat-down of even our heads from quiet safety guards follows after which a big metallic door swings open, revealing a courtyard on the opposite facet.
Haitian authorities name these males assassins. They name themselves harmless.
“We had been helpful idiots for another person,” one of many males informed us. “But we didn’t commit this crime.” More than 5 months detained after that lethal evening, the lads haven’t been formally charged.
Above, the scene exterior the National Penitentiary the place members of the family deliver meals for prisoners inside.
CNN was allowed to enter the penitentiary after months of negotiation, with solely paper and a pen, and informed to attend in a picket hut within the jail courtyard. Twenty minutes later, 5 Colombian males clearly not anticipating our go to walked towards us in shorts, t-shirts and darkish blue croc-style sandals, wanting gaunt and unhealthy.
In an unique interview, these 5 are the primary and solely suspects within the assassination case to talk out publicly. They agreed to take action provided that their identities had been withheld, fearing for their very own security and that of their households.
Their message was constant over an hour-long dialog of their native Spanish — they’re harmless, they’ve been tortured they usually have been set-up.
Afraid to speak
All 5 males stated they arrived in Haiti in June, a few month earlier than the assassination that may upturn their lives and throw the nation’s political panorama into chaos.
All former Colombian troopers, they informed CNN they had been employed as non-public safety by an organization referred to as CTU.
Promised wherever from $2,700-3,000 a month, they took on the job. According to the 5 males CNN spoke to and the wives of a number of others, they had been by no means paid a dime.
CTU has not responded to CNN’s prior requests for remark and it is unclear if the corporate even nonetheless exists.
“We had been informed that we had been going to offer safety for a Haiti presidential candidate,” stated one of many males. “We had no concept what was going to occur.”
In Haiti, they had been a part of a bunch of greater than two dozen Colombians who lived and labored collectively in a compound within the capital metropolis Port-au-Prince, not that removed from the place then-President Moise lived.
In the useless of evening on July 7, this group was loaded right into a convoy that may rumble up Pelerin Road to the presidential compound.
The president could be fatally shot shortly afterward. His spouse, First Lady Martine Moise, was severely injured within the gunfire as properly.
CNN requested the 5 prisoners repeatedly for extra particulars in regards to the assassination, together with what occurred throughout the assassination, who was behind it, what their particular person involvement particularly was and what they did within the hours after that killing.
They insisted they weren’t accountable for the president’s demise however declined to reply additional questions or go into particulars about that deadly morning for 2 frequent causes: First, that none presently have authorized illustration and second, that they concern for his or her lives.
“We are caught on this jail,” stated one man. “We have to remain right here. I’ll scream out loud all that I do know after I can go away right here however whereas we’re right here, we’re fearful of reprisals.”
“I’m scared for what they could do to me but additionally for what they could do to my household [in Colombia],” stated one other man.
‘They beat all of us’
Sometime after Moise was assassinated within the early morning hours, the 5 males interviewed by CNN left in that very same convoy. Their automobiles had been captured on cellular phone video shot by a number of locals within the space.
But they did not make it very far earlier than they had been boxed-in by Haitian safety forces, they stated. Forced out of their vehicles, they took shelter in a close-by empty constructing. Hours later, they fled out the again of the constructing and up a steep hill, making their option to the Taiwan embassy.
According to Taiwan’s overseas ministry and a supply in Haitian safety forces, the group of Colombians pressured their manner inside, tying up two guards within the course of. But Haitian regulation enforcement officers tracked them down, they usually turned themselves in.
Once in custody, the beatings started, the prisoners allege.
One of the Colombians was stabbed a number of occasions by Haitian police whereas a number of others had been pistol whipped over the pinnacle, they stated. Others had been crushed, with one attacked so brutally that his face could be disfigured by the blows, they recounted to CNN.
The males stated earlier than being transferred to the infamous National Penitentiary, they had been held in an undisclosed location for greater than three weeks.
“They held us some other place for 25 days, handcuffed in pairs. We went to the lavatory on the ground,” stated one prisoner.
The males stated the beatings had been steady and brutal, and that they feared for his or her households’ security again dwelling in Colombia.
“Do you know the way exhausting it’s once they present you an image of your loved ones on a cellular phone?,” requested one man, tears welling up in his eyes. “We needed to do what they stated.”
And what they had been requested to do, stated every man, was signal their names to official statements they didn’t give and which had been written in a language they may not learn.
“I used to be sitting quietly, not saying a phrase and the officer was writing my assertion for me,” stated one man. “He stored me and writing extra though I hadn’t stated something. They had been writing and we had been quiet.”
He then signed a reputation to a doc written in French, a language that he couldn’t perceive, he stated.
All 5 males alleged that that they had been pressured to signal declarations beneath duress.
“The actual folks accountable for this are exterior of the jail and we’re caught in right here. We had been cheated, framed, and scammed,” stated one man.
Haiti’s National Police didn’t reply to CNN’s request for remark. Asked in regards to the allegations of torture in police custody, a Haitian federal authorities spokesperson stated the federal government “has nothing to cover” mentioning that CNN had “full permission to go to the Colombians.”
The similar spokesperson denied that any official testimony was recorded with out the Colombians’ data of what was being written.
“Based on credible data, they had been supplied translators so that they understood what to signal or not,” stated the spokesman.
Little meals, no authorized illustration
The 5 males have been held at Haiti’s National Penitentiary since late summer time.
The situations within the jail are visibly horrific, with a number of males crowded right into a single cell. Sanitation seemed to be an afterthought. Rats scampered throughout the grounds.
“Our lives are value nothing in right here,” one of many Colombian prisoners informed us.
The males say they obtain one plate of rice per day, or typically corn. Each says they’ve misplaced greater than 30 kilos. Some are noticeably dropping their hair leaving patchy clumps on their heads, a transparent signal of malnutrition.
“It’s inhuman what is going on to us right here,” one of many males, in tears, stated.
Haiti’s main human rights group, The National Human Rights Defense Network (RNDDH), additionally describes normal situations within the jail as inhumane. “The jail would not have sufficient meals, gasoline to cook dinner and sufficient entry to care regardless of receiving increasingly more prisoners within the 12 months,” they stated in a report launched final month.
“We absolutely respect human rights,” stated a Haitian federal authorities spokesperson. “We haven’t any grudges towards the Colombian prisoners.”
The authorities didn’t reply to questions on why the lads had not but been formally charged.
But greater than 5 months after the assassination, not one of the males have authorized illustration — a prerequisite to having their testimonies heard by a decide. They say the Haitian judicial system has solely supplied them junior legal professionals with whom they may not talk.
“They despatched me some lawyer in his second semester who did not communicate Spanish,” stated one of many males. “I’m not going to belief my life with him.”
According to an individual near the case, the legal professionals supplied to symbolize the lads weren’t college students, however reasonably apprentices. Before changing into practising legal professionals, regulation graduates should serve what is usually a two-year apprenticeship.
Though they aren’t absolutely certified legal professionals and have little expertise, these apprentices are generally appointed to symbolize those that can’t afford a personal legal professional, in line with Brian Concannon, an skilled with a long time of expertise working Haiti’s authorized system.
“So they’re defending critical felony instances when they aren’t allowed to look in a easy contract case [because they are not yet practicing attorneys],” stated Concannon. “They haven’t any finances for investigation and usually get no compensation for his or her time.”
The males had hoped the Colombian authorities would supply them with some authorized help, however that up to now has not occurred.
Haiti’s authorities has additionally stated the duty lies with Colombia now. “We hope authorities officers of Colombia present legal professionals to the prisoners to allow them to be examined by the decide [overseeing this case],” stated a Haitian authorities spokesperson, including that they can’t be formally questioned with out an legal professional current.
The Colombian federal authorities in Bogotá didn’t reply to CNN’s request for remark, and the Colombian Embassy in Haiti referred our inquiries to the Foreign Ministry.
A public assertion from late July stated Colombian authorities representatives met with Colombian suspects with an legal professional current. However, the lads we spoke to stated that not one of the Colombians within the jail presently have authorized illustration.
Adding insult to harm, the lads say, they’ve by no means obtained an evidence of the authorized foundation for his or her lengthy detention.
“At no level has somebody in [the legal process] seemed me within the face and stated, ‘This is why you might be right here,'” stated one of many males. “We clearly know why we’re in right here however there isn’t a rule of regulation or due course of right here. Everyone ought to be harmless till confirmed responsible and all of us have rights to authorized illustration.”
The prisoners wrapped up the hour-long dialog with a message to the worldwide neighborhood.
“Please discover the love in your hearts to grasp our scenario and provides us some advantage of the doubt,” stated one man. “The neatest thing that might occur is that this is delivered to a global tribunal. When I’m out of this nation, I’ll inform the world every little thing I do know.”