Former mayor of Port-au-Prince (Haiti) Chevry Youry Ralph, former governor of the border town of Sacalasou, Werson Pierre, two Haitian police officers, Antonine Maquendy and Wiquensont Despine, were arrested last night by army members at the border of the Santiago de la Cruz municipal district of Dajabón, after fleeing their country, after being accused by President Jovenel Moise of organizing a coup attempt against him, yesterday asked the Dominican authorities not to return them in their country, because they risk losing their lives.
In turn, they announced that they would seek political asylum in this country.
Army sources in the Dominican Republic told Listín Diario that the detainees had been transferred in two helicopters to the Santo Domingo army headquarters and were being investigated.
Former Haitian officials and police have been arrested following an alert from the Haitian government.
“If they return us to Haiti, we are definitely dead,” the former Port-au-Prince mayor proclaimed.
The soldiers noticed a vehicle of suspicious origin and that, when they arrived at the military checkpoint in Santiago de la Cruz, they detained it together with its occupants, according to the army report.
However, the president of the Haitian National Network for Human Rights (RNDDH), Roberto Álvarez, has called on the Dominican government to grant asylum to the former mayor of Port-au-Prince, the former governor and other police officers.
He says Chevry was interviewed by the Central Directorate of the Haitian Judicial Police last October and sent to his residence, but that on February 6, Haitian police officers broke into his home and two days later issued a search warrant against him. to.
It is added that this search warrant came after a judge of the Court of Cassation, Yvickel Dieujuste Dabresil, was arrested on the night of February 6 in the company of 17 other people, including Maria’s inspector general, Louise Gauthier.
He points out that a wave of persecution against the political opposition is currently developing in Haiti, with several prisoners, “with the obvious aim of sowing terror among the population and establishing a state of siege in the country. Faced with this situation and fearing for his life, Mr. Ralph Youri Chevry was forced to take refuge in search of protection on Dominican territory, while democracy was restored in Haiti. “
The Haitian human rights organization supports your request in documents relating to the refugee situation, including the 1951 Geneva Convention and the 1967 Protocol relating to the situation of refugees ratified by the Dominican Republic on 1 and 4 April 1978.