PORT-AU-PRINCE, (Reuters) – Haiti’s Justice Minister has appealed a court decision tossing an indictment against two alleged gang leaders following a storm of protest over the politically charged case involving a friend of the family of President Michel Martelly.
The minister, Pierre-Richard Casimir, filed the appeal with the Haitian Supreme Court, he told Reuters in an interview yesterday.
On Friday, a lower court freed Woodly Ethéart and Renel Nelfort after prosecutors told a judge they did not have enough evidence to win a conviction.
The two men were charged last month with masterminding a series of kidnappings, as well as murder, money-laundering and drug-trafficking for the infamous Galil Gang. A lawyer who testified in the case said the gang made nearly $2 million dollars from kidnapping ransoms in a two-year period.
The U.S. State Department has questioned the handling of the case, saying it was “concerned about the ruling, including the speed in which it was made.”
