Gang causes mass jailbreak
2005-02-20 09:35
Port-Au-Prince - An armed gang stormed Haiti's main prison and freed hundreds of prisoners including two jailed former government ministers in a bid to release drug traffickers, a Haitian government source said, adding that a number of detainees had already been recaptured.
According to initial investigations the strike, which freed a total of 359 detainees and left a prison guard dead, "was carried out by a group trying to release prisoners for money", according to the source, a member of the entourage of interim President Boniface Alexandre.
Yvon Neptune et Jocelerme Privert, former prime minister and interior minister in the regime of ex-president Jean Bertrand Aristide, took advantage of the chaos to escape from the national penitentiary, along with more than 350 other prisoners, the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
But the two were subsequently recaptured after calling several embassies to request political asylum, enabling police to trace them, the official said.
The former ministers are now back in the prison, tightly guarded by Haitian police and UN peacekeepers, the source said.
In total, 356 detainees escaped when the prison was invaded by armed men Saturday afternoon. Police had recaptured "a certain number," a police spokesperson said, but she did not specify how many.
Guard killed, three wounded
A prison guard was killed and three were wounded during the mass escape.
The assailants penetrated the facility while visiting family members were delivering food to inmates, police spokesperson Gessy Coicou said.
Witnesses said intense shooting erupted after three vehicles approached the front of the prison at about 15:30. The operation appeared to be well-organised, and co-ordinated from inside the prison.
"It was an operation mounted from both the inside and outside," a guard said.
The prison, located in the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince, held 1 422 inmates prior to the escape, human rights official Kettly Julien said.
Aristide fled Haiti on February 29 last year amid an armed uprising and street protests against his rule. He now lives in exile in South Africa.
He was replaced by a US- and French-backed interim government led by president Boniface Alexandre and prime minister Gerard Latortue.
- AFP