Page 12 - ARUBA TODAY

A12 WORLD NEWS
Wednesday 22 March 2017

Haiti police dispute there was attempt on Aristide’s life

at a court hearing. lence, including a security
A cellphone video made guard who was shot in the
public by Aristide’s Fanmi wrist. Investigators say it is
Lavalas political move- not clear who shot them.
ment doesn’t capture the “I can assure you the guys
full incident, but shows traveling in that motor-
rocks raining down on cade had guns. They had
police officers, who take more guns than we did,”
cover behind cars. One of- said Duval.
ficer is clearly seen firing his The incident is under inves-
weapon several times to- tigation, Pierre-Louis said at
ward the opposite side of his office a few blocks from
the intersection. the intersection where the
Police Inspector Prenel Du- violence took place. But
val said officers with the he flatly rejected the asser-
Motorized Intervention Bri- tion that Aristide was the
gade fired live rounds, but target of an “assassination
he asserted the intention attempt.”
was to disperse people. “That is nonsense. It was
He said there was consid- nothing like what they are
erable panic among the saying,” Pierre-Louis said.
crowd and “a lot of shoot- Aristide’s U.S. lawyer, Ira
ing from different direc- Kurzban, has said the shots
Supporters of former Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide chant while he leaves the court- tions.” He acknowledged were “fired by uniformed
house in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Monday March 20, 2017. Haitian police on Tuesday rejected claims that the officers with the police directly at the vehi-
by ex-President Jean-Bertrand Aristide’s lawyers and associates that the twice-elected, twice-
ousted former leader was the target of an assassination attempt. unit do not have training to cle in which President Aris-
(AP Photo/Dieu Nalio Chery) deal with crowds. tide was a passenger.”
The officers appeared to The incident occurred af-
DAVID McFADDEN assassination attempt. were police. be taken by surprise by the ter Aristide appeared as a
EVENS SANON Shots were fired at the But in an interview with The confrontation between witness in a court hearing
Associated Press former president’s motor- Associated Press, Deputy roughly 20 partisans of involving an associate who
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) cade Monday as it passed Commissioner Jean Alix President Jovenel Moise’s is facing a money launder-
— Haitian police on Tues- through an intersection in Pierre-Louis said Tuesday Tet Kale party and a much ing probe.
day rejected claims by downtown Port-au-Prince. that the chaos was caused larger crowd of Lavalas Although he hasn’t been in
ex-President Jean-Bertrand Aristide ally Yvon Feuille by partisans of two political faithful surrounding Aris- power since 2004, Aristide
Aristide’s lawyers and asso- and lawyers have de- factions who hurled rocks tide’s motorcade. remains a highly divisive
ciates that the twice-elect- scribed the incident as an and fired guns when Aris- Two people standing in figure in Haiti, popular with
ed, twice-ousted former “assassination attempt” tide’s motorcade passed front of Aristide’s car were some and reviled by oth-
leader was the target of an and allege the shooters by following his testimony wounded during the vio- ers. He emerged as a lead-
ing voice for Haiti’s poor
Wife says Cuban dissident gets 3 years on assault charge and became the troubled
country’s first democrati-
cally elected president in
HAVANA (AP) — A Cuban on Monday. accused him of assaulting Cuban officials consider 1990, despite opposition
dissident described by Am- Vecino said Cardet was in one of them. dissidents to be traitors paid from the army, Haiti’s elite
nesty International as a his cell Monday afternoon According to Amnesty In- by the U.S. government and the United States fol-
prisoner of conscience has when he was informed that ternational, five witnesses and exile groups hoping to lowing the 29-year Duvalier
been sentenced to three he had received the maxi- said Cardet was pushed off overthrow President Raul family dictatorship.
years in prison on an as- mum sentence. She said his bicycle and detained Castro’s government. Aristide was toppled twice
sault charge that his back- he would appeal the sen- by five agents as he re- The Christian Liberation from power, his second
ers describe as fabricated, tence. turned home from visiting Movement was founded term ending amid a violent
his wife said Monday. “I never thought it would his mother Nov. 30. The by dissident Oswaldo Paya, rebellion and allegations
Eduardo Cardet, a physi- be like this,” she said. “He rights group said in January who died in a car wreck in of corruption. He spent
cian who heads the Chris- had a strong defense.” that Cardet was a prisoner 2012. Many dissidents have seven years in exile in South
tian Liberation Movement, Vecino said her husband of conscience detained accused the government Africa. The former Roman
was found guilty of attack- was arrested in the fall a for exercising freedom of of causing the wreck. The Catholic priest insisted he
ing a police officer, Car- day after returning from expression and it called on government said it was an wouldn’t get involved in
det’s wife, Yaimary Vecino, a trip to the United States. Cuba’s government to re- accident caused by driver politics upon his return to
told The Associated Press She said security agents lease him. error. q Haiti in 2011. q