PORT AU PRINCE, Haiti– Prominent Haitian academic Professor Patrice Derenoncourt, kidnapped earlier this month, has been killed by his captors, police and media reports have indicated.
They said that the abductors who held Derenoncourt, an engineer, lawyer, and criminologist, on October 16 had demanded US$900,000 ransom. Despite the family paying part of the ransom, he was shot and killed on October 31.
Members of the Economic, Social, and Political Sciences (EPSU) department at Université Notre-Dame d’Haiti had called for the immediate and unconditional release of Professor Dérénoncourt, who taught criminology and constitutional law.
The university called on the Haitian government and the international community to take action against the wave of kidnappings. Dérénoncourt was taken during a weekend kidnapping spree. One police officer with Haiti’s Narcotics Trafficking Brigade was killed at the incident scene, and another later succumbed to his wounds.
Meanwhile, the 17 United States and Canadian missionaries kidnapped for more than two weeks are still being held by their abductors, who are demanding US$17 million ransom.
Police here are being assisted by officials from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) searching for the missionaries.
and then 