PORT-AU-PRINCE, 12 July 2021, (TON): Haitian police said they had arrested one of the suspected masterminds in the assassination of President Jovenel Moise, a Haitian man whom authorities accused of hiring mercenaries to oust and replace Moise.

Moise was shot dead early on Wednesday at his Port-au-Prince home by what Haitian authorities describe as a unit of assassins formed of 26 Colombians and two Haitian Americans, plunging the troubled Caribbean nation deeper into turmoil.

National Police Chief Leon Charles told a news conference the arrested man, 63-year-old Christian Emmanuel Sanon, flew to Haiti on a private jet in early June, accompanied by hired security guards, and wanted to take over as president.

Charles added “he did not explain Sanon’s motives beyond saying they were political, but added that one of those in custody had contacted him upon being arrested. Sanon, in turn, contacted two other intellectual authors of the assassination.”

He said “the mission of these attackers was initially to ensure the safety of Emmanuel Sanon, but later the mission was changed and they presented one of the attackers with an arrest warrant for the president of the republic.”