The chief of staff of the former Minister of Justice raises this question in a context of evolution in the role of prosecutors in Haiti
Since his ascension to the post of prosecutor of Nippes in January 2019, Ernest Muscadin has identified, tracked down and sometimes publicly executed suspected bandits in this department in the south of the country.
Read also: Who is Ernest Muscadin?
His count had reached around twenty alleged criminals killed in November 2024, according to a report from the National Human Rights Defense Network. Between January and March 2025, AyiboPost counts more than ten additional cases from media reports.
These feats against banditry, although acclaimed, are recorded outside legal frameworks. Beyond constitutional provisions for self-defense, no law allows prosecutors to carry weapons of war, an increasingly popular practice in Haiti.
In the judicial system, these officers must represent society and enforce the penal policy of the government in power.
In criminal matters, for example, they initiate public action, refer crimes to the criminal court or to the investigating office for crimes.
Beyond constitutional provisions for self-defense, no law allows prosecutors to carry weapons of war, an increasingly popular practice in Haiti.
During the hearings, the prosecutor supports the accusations and presents the evidence. He also executes court decisions and can challenge judges’ decisions before higher courts in case of disagreement.
In civil matters, mainly concerning disputes between individuals over property or debts, he gives opinions to the judge and make conclusions, playing a secondary role.
The gap between the legal mission of the prosecutors and practice is pushing organizations to demand the resignation of Muscadin, the most prominent « standing magistrate » in armed operations against bandits.
In December 2023, the Ministry of Justice and Public Security took a half-measure after a letter of denunciation from the RNDDH: Muscadin was formally blamed for having exceeded the physical limits of his jurisdiction in his hunt for bandits.
Muscadin was not dismissed for fear of hostile reactions from society, because his actions respond to an urgent need for security, Paul Eronce Villard, former chief of staff of the Minister of Justice at the time, Emmelie Prophète, reveals to AyiboPost.
A former prosecutor in 2018, Villard explains in an interview with AyiboPost that it was difficult for the administration at the time to sanction Commissioner Muscadin.
The decision caused an uproar in the country. “The people appreciate and support [Muscadin]. Even a simple letter of reprimand was seen as an act of courage on the part of the minister,” explains Paul Eronce Villard, the author of the book Haiti and the Specter of Corruption: Outline of a Moralization of Public Life.
The population politically rewards prosucotrs engaged in the fight against insecurity.
The former government commissioner in 2018 explains in an interview with AyiboPost that it was difficult for the administration at the time to sanction Commissioner Muscadin.
In July 2011, Jean-Marie Junior Salomon became a standing magistrate in Les Cayes. Very quickly, he sets out to hunt thieves in the capital of the South department.
Salomon had participated in the arrest of businessman Evinx Daniel, reputed to be close to then President Martelly, for involvement in drug trafficking. This affair cost him his job in September 2013.
But in October 2015, the people placed him in the Senate, an election widely seen as a reward for his active activism against crime.
The same year, Jean Renel Senatorus arrived at the Senate in the West after nine months at the Port-au-Prince Prosecutor’s Office, a short stint mainly devoted to tracking down child criminals.
These political successes inspire.
Wadson Azor takes the reins of the Coteaux Prosecutor’s Office in December 2023. A week after taking office, he oversaw an operation leading to the death of nineteen suspected bandits from a gang operating in Tiburon.
Then, on the night of February 15 to 16, 2024, with the National Police, he carried out another operation which led to the death of two other suspects identified as leaders of the “Tirach” gang. The former Minister of Justice, Me Carlos Hercule, will place him on leave without pay in August 2024. He has not officially revealed the reasons for this decision.
The former prosecutor of the Les Cayes government, James Jean Louis, was also placed on leave without pay after participating in a police operation which led to the death of Josème Joseph, a former agent assigned to the intelligence service of former commissioner Ronald Richemond.
Former prosecutor Ronald Richemond finds himself publicly implicated in the assassination of journalist Garry Tesse. Attempts to contact him were unsuccessful.
The current standing magistrate of the area, Me Pierre Elioth Paul, believes in the field work of prosecutors to obtain better results in their jurisdiction, particularly in the fight against insecurity. He told AyiboPost that he received “firm support” from all successive Ministers of Justice.
Developments in the role of prosecutors are causing concern in the justice system.
The country’s Constitution does not provide for the death penalty. The vast majority of people summarily killed during operations do not benefit from the presumption of innocence.
“It is not up to the government commissioner to neutralize a bandit,” says Lucmane Délile, former Minister of Justice and former head of the Public Prosecutor’s Office under the presidency of Michel Joseph Martelly.
The question of changing the law to accommodate this development or transferring the most zealous commissioners to the police or the army remains unresolved.
It is not up to prosecutor to neutralize a bandit
– Lucmane Délile
Because, directing police operations as a standing magistrate remains “inappropriate” and not statutory, according to Marthel Jean Claude, president of the Professional Association of Magistrates (APM).
The arming and hiring of armed individuals accompanying prosecutors also generates criticism.
The Miragoâne prosecutor, Muscadin, declares that he has not received any material means from the Ministry of Justice and Public Security to work in the field. He claims to have arrived at the Prosecutor’s Office with a 9mm gun lent by a friend.
“It was the [late] President Jovenel Moïse who gave me weapons, money and other means to fight banditry in Nippes,” reveals Commissioner Muscadin, without giving details.
The commissioner receives money and sometimes equipment from the diaspora. He says he only receives 12,500 gourdes per month from the Ministry of Justice to hire a ministry security agent. Insufficient funds to pay his team, whose workforce remains secret.
Harmony between the Justice Department and prosecutors could yield better results on the ground, Muscadin believes. “But,” he said, “when it comes to saving the Republic, we must act even without the knowledge of the ministry.”
Contacted by AyiboPost, the Minister of Justice and Public Security, Patrick Pélissier, did not react.
Up to two police officers or security agents may accompany prosecutors in the exercise of their duties.
But “it is often armed civilians who ensure the security of prosecutors,” comments magistrate Wando Saint-Villier. I doubt that state institutions have precise information on these individuals,” continues Saint-Villier, stressing that the practice is new in certain provincial towns.
Most prosecutors intervene on the ground with weapons of war. However, even the Haitian National Police should not be equipped with weapons of war, according to the law.
“Letting the State sink into arbitrariness and disregard for the rules is to sound the death knell for the rule of law,” warns Me Samuel Madistin, head of Fondasyon Je Klere.
By :Fenel Pélissier & Rolph Louis-Jeune
This article was modified to replace Joseph Michel Martelly with Michel Joseph Martelly.
Cover | Photo of Ernest Muscadin (Photo: Unknown)
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