What the American accused of plotting to kill Haiti’s President told police

Could the traveling pastor with a history of humanitarian work also have masterminded an intricate murder plot to seize power in Haiti? Christian Emmanuel Sanon, the latest American citizen to be arrested in connection to the assassination of Haiti’s President, has been accused by authorities of orchestrating a complex multinational hit job in order to realize his own political ambitions.

“He came with the intention to take over as President of the Republic,” Haitian National Police Director General Leon Charles said of Sanon in a press conference on Sunday.

He was also the first person one of the alleged men involved in the killing of President Jovenel Moise called after the attack, Charles said.

But Sanon has insisted on his innocence, according to a source close to the investigation who cannot be named because they are not authorized to discuss the affair. The 63-year-old was arrested over the weekend during a police raid in an otherwise peaceful hilltop neighborhood in the capital Port-au-Prince, according to the source.

The houses there are large and gated, and just a stone’s throw away from the residence of acting Prime Minister Claude Joseph, who currently leads the country. Inside a sprawling complex whose doors read “International Medical Village,” police found boxes of ammunition and holsters for rifles and pistols, CNN’s source said. According to a police statement, they also found 24 unused shooting targets, a cap labeled “DEA,” and four Dominican Republic license plates.Judicial notices affixed to the property warn that it is now a sealed site amid the ongoing investigation.

Sanon told police that he had no knowledge of the attack on the President and that he hadn’t known the weaponry and other seized materials were in the building, according to the source. He also told police that he was a Christian pastor, and emphasized that the building was neither his home nor his property, the source said.