Indicted for trying to overthrow the Haitian government
Canadian police announced Thursday the indictment of a Quebecer accused of wanting to overthrow the government of Jovenel Moïse, without being linked to the assassination of the latter.
Archive image of Jovenel Moïse.
AFP
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) indicates that the 51-year-old man planned to “execute an armed revolution in Haiti to ultimately seize power”. The suspect, Gérald Nicolas, is said to have “taken concrete action” by going to Haiti in particular and setting up an armed group aimed at preparing “a coup d’etat”.
Alerted in July 2021 by local authorities of “suspicious activities”, the RCMP arrested the Quebecer in November of the same year after searching his home, Sergeant Charles Poirier told AFP. The suspect was later released as the investigation continues.
Apart from his trips to Haiti, “Mr. Nicolas traveled to several countries in South America and Central America to recruit fighters and obtain funding and weapons,” the officer added. “However, he did not manage to obtain these weapons,” he said.
He denies
Still free, Gérald Nicolas is due to appear in Quebec justice on December 1 where he will face three counts, including those of having left Canada to “facilitate terrorist activity” and of having provided “property to terrorist purposes”.
For his part, Gérald Nicolas categorically denies these accusations, explaining that everything would have been invented by “vengeance” by a woman with whom he would have had a relationship.
“She set up a whole scenario that I was a terrorist” with the police, the suspect told AFP, adding that the police would have “been very zealous”. He explains that he simply wanted to “raise awareness among Haitians” by creating a discussion group on Facebook with other Haitians “so that they can take their destiny into their own hands” and not wait for “the West to arrive”. “I never wanted to hurt anyone” and “there is no terrorist group,” adds the man who says he is of Haitian origin.
“Mr. Nicolas is very clear as to the fact that he did nothing, that he has nothing to reproach himself for, that these are accusations that are unfounded, “said his lawyer, Tiago Murias, adding that his client counted “plead not guilty”.
“Coincidence”
The authorities, however, clarified that this investigation was not related to the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse in July 2021 by an armed commando in his residence near the capital Port-au-Prince.
The proximity between Gérald Nicolas’ coup plot and the president’s assassination “could be a coincidence,” said Charles Poirier, adding that police had found “no evidence to suggest a link between the two.”
The Caribbean country has been stuck for years in a deep economic, security and political crisis, and the assassination of President Moïse has profoundly worsened the situation, with an increasingly strong grip by gangs. The population is also facing a new cholera epidemic, only three years after having eradicated a previous epidemic of this disease which killed more than 10,000 people.
AFP
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