Threats of death, burns with hot oil and fire, wounds with sharp weapons and hammers, blows to the head, arms and private parts.
These are some of the alleged acts of torture that 18 former Colombian soldiers detained in Haiti claim to have been subjected to by Haitian police after being arrested for their alleged involvement in the July 7 assassination of President Jovenel Moïse.
The 18 ex-servicemen described the alleged torture in a letter sent to the authorities of their country and to which The Associated Press has had access through one of the relatives, who requested the reservation of their identity for security reasons. He did not give details of how they received the handwritten letter.
The letter, dated September 6, is addressed to Colombian President Iván Duc, Chancellor and Vice President Marta Lucía Ramírez, Ombudsman Carlos Camargo, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, the International Committee of the Red Cross and the media.
The Chancellery, the Presidency of Colombia and the Haitian National Police did not respond immediately to the PA’s request for information.
“The 18 Colombians detained in Haiti are addressing you, to denounce the very serious systematic violations of our human rights by the Haitian state, specifically by members of the National Police and the Judicial Police,” reads the letter written in hand.
After the assault on the presidential residence in which Martine Moïse, the president’s wife, was also seriously injured, Haitian authorities arrested more than 40 suspects, 18 are Colombians and some Haitian police, as well as doctor Christian Emmanuel Sanon . They also reported that three Colombians were shot dead during post-homicide operations.
In the letter, the detained Colombians say that one of the shot, retired sergeant Duberney Capador Giraldo, was first wounded with a crack from a grenade that was lodged in his hip and assisted by a nurse, however, they indicate that ” he was later tortured and pardoned by a member of the Haitian National Police. “
The ex-servicemen, currently detained at the Haitian National Penitentiary, state in the letter that they received ill-treatment during the capture despite no resistance and their subsequent arrest in a cell of a police station. In some cases they point out that the police themselves would have “thrown them at the civilian population for lynching” before driving them to the police station.
According to the letter, ex-military Manuel Antonio Grosso was captured “unarmed” and once at the police station he was “tortured, beaten countless times in the testicles, ribs and stomach. His testicles were burned with a spray and a lighter, he was thrown to the floor and hit in the face. “
In addition, they state in the letter that at least five detainees were threatened with death by Haitian police. These would be Jhon Jairo Suárez Alegria, Germán Alejandro Rivera García, Jheymer Alberto Carmona, Víctor Albeiro Pineda Carmona, Alejandro Giraldo Zapata.
“He was threatened with a slow and painful death, as according to the judicial police in Haiti human rights do not exist,” the letter states in the case of Pineda Carmona.
The UN Integrated Office in Haiti has noted in a report released in June this year that in prisons in that country most criminals are confined in “inhumane conditions” and have not yet been sentenced. Several other UN reports have warned of torture and ill-treatment in prisons.
The complaint indicates that the injured detainees were not properly cared for by doctors. In the case of Jhon Jairo Ramírez Gómez, they claim that “his right foot was burned with hot oil generating a third-degree burn” and then in the absence of a medical check-up, his foot “became seriously infected.” .
The lack of timely medical care was also reported by the Ombudsman of Colombia, a state body responsible for ensuring human rights, after a visit to prisons on 26 July. In this report they warned that three of the detainees had “serious injuries which, by their appearance, should be treated in a specialist medical establishment”. The organization also noted that the detainees remained handcuffed for 24 hours and did not receive enough food and water.
Both the Ombudsman’s Office and the Chancellery and their relatives have warned that the detainees do not have any legal assistance to defend themselves in Haiti, even though they have already been transferred to prison.
Court clerks investigating the case have been threatened with death as pressure to change certain names and statements in their reports, so they have been hidden. In addition, a Haitian judge assigned to oversee the investigation resigned last month for personal reasons. This happened after one of his assistants died in unclear circumstances. A new judge has been assigned, but the former Colombian military has not yet appeared in court.
One of the main suspects is still a fugitive from justice: Joseph Félix Badio, a former official of the Haitian Ministry of Justice, who has been identified by Colombian police as the one who ordered the assassination of Moses.
In audio statements known to Noticias Caragol, a Colombian media outlet, and released on August 18, four detained ex-servicemen reportedly confessed to being ordered to assassinate the president and also pointed to Badio.
“Mike (as they say to Germán Rivera) did say that it was time to enter and kill everyone, it was time to kill all the police, or rather, if there was even a pet to kill the pet, that there could be no witness … if we they said, that it was an arrest warrant, yes, but Mike told us that it was his turn to peel (kill) the president “, indicated in one of the audios another person, who according to Caragol is the ex-military Jheyner Carmona Flórez.
President Duque has told the press that most ex-servicemen were tricked into traveling to Haiti and fulfilling an alleged protection mission and only a small group was aware they would perpetrate a criminal plan.
Colombian authorities have also noted that highly trained former Colombian military personnel were hired for at least five security companies, one of them CTU Security, which is now being investigated.
In the letter, the ex-military states that the statements given to the judicial police were “under torture, and coercion, without a lawyer present.” In addition, they point out that they signed statements that would have been ready before the interviews by the authorities, without knowing their content. They are finally asking for “humanitarian aid” and a verification commission on the allegations they make.