Jacques Roche

Who was Jacques Roche?

Jacques Roche was a prominent journalist and poet of Haiti. He was kidnapped on July 11, 2005, and was found dead on July 14, 2005. Television footage showed him tied to a chair and mutilated. Police say he was tortured, his tongue cut out, then shot.

On July 16 and 22, 2005, members of the UN mission in Haiti and local police arrested three suspects. According to Reporters Without Borders, the suspects belonged to a gang called the "Rat Army" that operated in the Port-au-Prince district of Bel-Air.

Political opposition leader Gérard Jean-Juste was also charged in the case, but those charges were later dropped following international protest and claims of political motivation by government police and judges.