HAITI-Another snag hits judicial inquiry into the assassination of the Haitian President.

PORT AU PRINCE, Haiti, CMC -More than four years after he was assassinated at his private residence, the judicial matter involving the killing of President Jovenel Moïse has hit yet another snag.

Earlier this week, the Court of Appeals announced that it has reopened the investigation into the July 7, 2021, assassination of the President, annulling a previously contested judicial order and assigning a new judge to pursue the long-stalled case.

In its ruling issued on Monday, the Court also overturned the indictment by investigating judge Walther Wesser Voltaire, citing procedural irregularities and failure to identify the masterminds behind the killing.

Voltaire had indicted several high-profile people, including Martine Moïse, accused of complicity in the murder of her husband, with whom she was when the killers barged into their private residence overlooking the capital. She had to be flown to the United States for medical treatment following the killing.

The Appeals Court has since appointed Magistrate Denis Cyprien to resume the investigation of the case, while ordering the continued detention of all persons already under judicial supervision and requesting mutual legal assistance from the United States and Canada.

Cyprien becomes the sixth investigating judicial official to handle the case, which has now dragged on for more than four years without a single trial. Those to be questioned include former police chief Léon Charles, ex-prime minister Ariel Henry, and members of Moïse’s family.

Court observers here say that the Appeals Court’s decision effectively resets the investigation, giving Haiti another chance to pursue justice in a case that had long been stalled.

President Moïse was shot and killed on July 7, 2021, by a commando unit of former Colombian soldiers and Haitian American nationals posing as U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agents.

Since his murder, the US Justice Department has taken into custody several suspects, charging them with conspiring to commit murder or kidnapping outside the United States, as well as smuggling ballistic vests from the United States to Haiti for use in the assassination plot.

A former Haitian legislator, John Joel Joseph, has been sentenced to life in prison for conspiring to kill Moïse.