(RSF/IFEX) – Reporters Without Borders welcomes the arrest of Wensley Boshomme, a gang member also known as “Zachary Occeda” and “Bertold,” who is suspected of participating in the July 2005 murder of Jacques Roche, the head of the arts and culture section of the daily “Le Matin”. Boshomme was arrested in a joint operation by […]
(RSF/IFEX) – Reporters Without Borders welcomes the arrest of Wensley Boshomme, a gang member also known as “Zachary Occeda” and “Bertold,” who is suspected of participating in the July 2005 murder of Jacques Roche, the head of the arts and culture section of the daily “Le Matin”.
Boshomme was arrested in a joint operation by police and members of the United Nations Stabilisation Mission in Haiti (Minustah) on 8 October in Port-au-Prince. The police said the available evidence about Roche’s kidnapping and execution-style murder would suffice to establish Boshomme’s participation.
Boshomme, who escaped from the national penitentiary on 19 February 2005, is reputed to be a member of a gang that was led by Junior “Yoyo Piman” Acdhély, who was killed in a clash with Minustah peacekeepers in June 2007. The gang was based in the slum neighbourhood of Cité Soleil where Boshomme was arrested.
Roche was abducted as he was driving through the Nazon district of Port-au-Prince on 10 July 2005. Despite negotiations with his family, in which the kidnappers demanded a ransom, his body was found four days later. Two gang members, Alby Joseph and Chéry Beaubrun, received life sentences on 30 August 2007 for their part in his abduction and murder. Three other persons being held for “illegal possession of firearms” are also suspected of involvement.
