Haitian authorities detained at least 21 prison guards in connection with an alleged plot to kill prisoners affiliated with ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, a top official in Haiti's most prominent rights group said Tuesday. Police spokesman Gessy Coicou said 21 prison guards were detained for corruption and other allegations, but declined to comment on the alleged plot or say whether charges would be filed. Pierre Esperance, the local director of the National Coalition for Haitian Rights, said police had said the detained guards worked in the National Penitentiary in Port-au-Prince.
Some inmates from Aristide's Lavalas Family party have been transferred to undisclosed locations for protection, he said. The director of the national penitentiary system, Claude Eugene Theodat, said some prisoners had been transferred to jails in three other towns as a security measure but declined further details. Top officials in Aristide's administration, such as former Prime Minister Yvon Neptune and former Interior Minister Jocelerme Privert, have been in the National Penitentiary for several months. Esperance said police would not say if they were targets, but that neither had been transferred out of the penitentiary. |