World

(NEW YORK) — Despite an alleged plot to lure and kidnap her, the arrest of her brother in Iran and ongoing death threats, Iranian American activist and journalist Masih Alinejad refuses to be silenced.

Eight months ago, the FBI arrived at Alinejad’s Brooklyn, New York, home to alert her that she was under surveillance by Iranian intelligence. They had obtained photos of her husband, children and even her as she watered flowers in her garden, Alinejad said.

“It was shocking because I left my beloved homeland to be safe here, and I was like, ‘Wow, so now the officials are that close to me,’” she told ABC News Live Prime, adding that authorities moved her to several different safe houses.

A federal court unsealed an indictment Tuesday charging four Iranian nationals with conspiring to kidnap Alinejad for “mobilizing public opinion in Iran and around the world to bring about changes to the regime’s laws and practices.”

Federal prosecutors said the suspects were directed by the government of Iran to conduct surveillance on Alinejad and lure her to a third country to be captured and brought back to Iran.

The group allegedly also targeted people in Canada, the United Kingdom and the United Arab Emirates. Four suspects are believed to remain at large in Iran while a fifth suspect was arrested in California.

“The FBI was asking me to go live [on Instagram from a] safe house … because they were trying to find out whether the [Iranian] intelligence was going to find out my new location, and they did,” Alinejad said. “I … couldn’t believe it. But at the same time, I don’t know why, but something just helped me to be more determined, to be more loud.”

While she was still at the safe house, she said that she started to contact some of the mothers whose children were killed at protests in Iran.

“Now, every week, I’m giving them a voice. … I got my power back,” she said. “The goal of the [Iranian] government [is] just to actually take my focus away from my work, from my job, because I’m a journalist. I’m an activist and I’m giving voice to millions of Iranian voiceless people. So I was like, ‘You know what, I’m going to do what I’m going to do.’”

Alinejad says “the Islamic Republic is scared” of her in part because she’s a woman.

“You go to my beautiful country, you will be beaten up because you’re unveiled. … I launched a campaign against compulsory hijab, and that is why, actually, I’m receiving death threats,” she said. “Of course, it is a scary [thing] that they were going to kidnap me, but that shows that they [are] scared [of] me and millions of other Iranian women, Iranian men, who got united this time loudly sending videos to me saying no to Islamic Republic. That’s why they sent someone here in New York to kidnap me. They didn’t want to after because they didn’t want any, you know, no Americans. So that’s why I strongly believe they are scared of their own people. And I’m giving voice to the people.”

In an attempt to discredit her, Alinejad says Iranian national television aired a report saying that she was raped, which was a lie. She also said Iran created a law that if anyone sent her videos, they could face up to 10 years in prison.

“I said to myself, ‘One day, I didn’t give up. I’m not going to give up,’” she said. “Then, after my family, they brought my sister on TV to disown me publicly. Then they interrogated my 70-year-old mother who wears [a] hijab. She has nothing to do with my campaign, but they interrogated her.”

Alinejad’s brother is in jail.

She says it was a difficult decision to reveal publicly that she had been the target of the kidnapping plot — mainly out of fear for her family.

“Sometimes I cannot even breathe when I think about my brother and my family. I love them. I’m a village girl,” she said. “My dream is to be in my own country. But what helps me to be strong and not give up [on] the people inside Iran [is] when I see that women were sending videos to me walking unveiled, which is a punishable crime. These are like Rosa Parks of Iran. So when they don’t give up, then I’m not going to give up because otherwise I’m going to actually [be] betraying my own people.”

Now, her goal is to send a message to the Biden administration and other Western powers that the Iranian regime must be dealt with.

“Stand up for human rights values because the regime [is] actually trying to manipulate the rest of the world. And it breaks my heart when I see the people of Iran are being abandoned,” she said. “I want to actually ask all the leaders of the free world to … not abandon Iranian people.”

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(NEW YORK) — Approximately 500,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccine arrived in Haiti on Wednesday, meaning it no longer was the only country in the Americas without any. But vaccine hesitancy, to say nothing of the recent violence and political unrest, could delay distribution for weeks.

Both U.S. and Haiti military forces helped UNICEF transport the doses in a mostly clandestine effort necessitated by the surrounding violence. The Moderna vaccines, which will be stored in hundreds of solar-power refrigerators throughout Haiti, were donated by the U.S. government through COVAX and delivered to Port-au-Prince, the nation’s capital.

Though grateful, UNICEF representatives said they’ll require many more — and not just in Haiti.

“We hope this first donation of doses will be followed by others,” UNICEF said in a statement. “More donations from well-supplied countries will be needed for Haiti and other countries in Latin America and the Caribbean to reach those most vulnerable to COVID-19 infection.”

Distribution is expected to start later this week as local health authorities and aid groups are battling vaccine misinformation that’s apparently spreading throughout the country.

Only 22% of all Haitians said they would get vaccinated, according to preliminary results of a UNICEF-supported study conducted by the University of Haiti in June. There’s also the ongoing gang violence and political uncertainty following the assassination of Haiti’s president.

Violence in June among armed groups escalated in several areas of Port-Au-Prince during a spike of COVID-19 cases. Over 15,000 women and children have been forced to flee their homes.

“Rising insecurity and clashes between gangs,” a UNICEF spokesperson said, “have seriously hindered humanitarian operations in the outskirts of Port-au-Prince.”

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(WASHINGTON) — German Chancellor Angela Merkel is set to visit the White House Thursday for talks with President Joe Biden.

After deciding not to seek another term in office, her trip will likely mark a farewell to Biden. It’s a chance for the longtime acquaintances and partners to reaffirm the strong U.S.-Germany bond in the face of global challenges, such as the coronavirus pandemic and rising autocratic influences.

“Chancellor Merkel has been a true friend to the United States, a strong advocate for the transatlantic partnership for multilateral cooperation, as well as for our shared priorities,” a senior administration official said ahead of the meeting. “In their meeting, I expect that President Biden will convey gratitude for her leadership role, in Europe and around the world, as she prepares to depart the German political stage, following their elections this September.”

The visit with also be an opportunity for the pair to hash out some areas of concern ahead of the end of Merkel’s tenure.

Merkel kicks off her visit having breakfast with Vice President Kamala Harris. In the afternoon, Merkel attends both a one-on-one and a larger group meeting at the White House with Biden. Merkel and Biden hold a press conference in the late afternoon and then in the evening, Biden will host a dinner for her and “a range of individuals who have long been strong supporters of Germany and the bilateral relationship, which will further demonstrate the close and continuing ties between our countries,” a senior administration official said.

Despite the warm welcome, challenges remain.

One sticking point between the two countries is Nord Stream 2, a pipeline to move gas directly from Russia, under the Baltic Sea and into Germany. Biden is opposed to the pipeline, as are many Republicans in Congress, because it could give Russia increased influence in Europe and more control over energy reserves. The pipeline will likely deprive other countries, such as Ukraine, of badly-needed oil revenues and some experts fear Russia could shut off the gas supply to certain countries in retaliatory moves.

Biden lifted U.S. sanctions on companies helping to build the pipeline in May as a goodwill gesture to European allies, as he worked to get them on board with his tough-on-Russia policies and in a tacit admission that U.S. sanctions ultimately failed to halt construction. That was a move some Republicans, including Sen. Ben Sasse of Nebraska, criticized.

“Instead of treating Putin like a gangster who fears his own people, we’re giving him his treasured Nord Stream 2 pipeline and legitimizing his actions with a summit,” Sasse said.

It’s a topic Biden is expected to bring up with Merkel on Thursday.

“I do expect that President Biden will raise his long-standing concerns with Chancellor Merkel during their meeting about Russia’s geopolitical project and about the importance of developing concrete mechanisms to ensure that energy is not used as a coercive tool against Ukraine, our eastern flank allies or any other country. We believe that the sanctions waivers that we announced in May have given us diplomatic space to be able to work with Germany to have these conversations to try and find ways to address the negative impacts of the pipeline,” the official said.

However, the official did not anticipate any formal announcement on Nord Stream out of the meeting.

The official did preview that Biden and Merkel will release a so-called Washington Declaration, “which will outline their common vision for cooperation to confront policy challenges,” and provide guiding principles for years ahead, even as Merkel’s successor takes the helm. The official also anticipated a climate and energy partnership to be announced, though they provided no further details on what that will look like.

Another area of difference between the two leaders is China’s rising global influence. While Biden has seen China as a competitor that must be curtailed, Merkel is friendlier towards a rising China, believing their success and a balanced trade relationship between the two countries will benefit Germany.

Other agenda items include the pandemic and security challenges in Afghanistan.

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(PRETORIA, South Africa) — At least 72 people have been killed in ongoing riots across South Africa, despite the efforts of heavily outnumbered authorities to quell the violent unrest sparked by the imprisonment of former President Jacob Zuma.

The South African Police Service said in a statement Tuesday that the death toll had risen to 27 in Zuma’s home province of KwaZulu-Natal and to 45 in the economic hub of Gauteng province, with many of the fatalities occurring in “stampedes” as scores of people looted food, liquor, clothes and electrical appliances from shops in poor areas. Other deaths were caused by explosions when people tried to break into ATM machines as well as shootings, according to police.

At least one police officer was killed in an attack on law enforcement, while seven others were injured while responding to the riots, police said.

So far, 1,234 people have been arrested, according to police, but the chaos has continued. Looters were seen ransacking warehouses and supermarkets in the port city of Durban on Tuesday, while rioters set fire to a chemical plant near the town of Umhlanga, just north of Durban.

The South African Police Service has recalled officers from leave and rest days, while the South African National Defence Forces has deployed thousands of soldiers to assist the overstretched law enforcement agencies on the ground.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has vowed to “restore calm and order,” describing the unrest as the worst the country has witnessed since the 1990s, before the end of the apartheid regime,

“Over the past few days and nights, there have been acts of public violence of a kind rarely seen in the history of our democracy,” Ramaphosa said in a televised address to the nation on Monday evening. “Let me be clear: We will take action to protect every person in this country against the threat of violence, intimidation, theft and looting. We will not hesitate to arrest and prosecute those who perpetrate these actions and will ensure that they face the full might of our law.”

The lawlessness has disrupted South Africa’s COVID-19 vaccination program, which Ramaphosa warned will have “lasting effects on our ability to consolidate some of the progress we were already witnessing in our economic recovery.” Vaccine shots are urgently needed in the country, which — along with other nations in Africa — is fighting a new wave of COVID-19 infections. The South African government recently reimposed and extended tight restrictions, including a nightly nationwide curfew, school closures, a ban on gatherings and limits on alcohol sales.

Violence and unrest has gripped parts of South Africa since Zuma turned himself in to police on July 7 to begin his 15-month jail term for contempt of court. South Africa’s highest court handed down the sentence after Zuma failed to appear before an inquiry examining corruption during the nine years that he served as president. Zuma has maintained his innocence, saying he is the victim of a politically motivated witch hunt, and his supporters took to the streets last week. But the protests appear to have reawakened deep-seated grievances over persistent poverty, unemployment and inequality, some 27 years after apartheid ended.

Following job layoffs and an economic downturn from the coronavirus pandemic, South Africa’s unemployment rate stands at a record high of 32.6% and is even higher among the youth, at 46.3%, according to official numbers released in June by the national statistical service. Meanwhile, more than half of the country’s 60 million people were living in poverty last year, according to data collected by the World Bank Group.

“There is no grievance, nor any political cause, that can justify the violence and destruction that we have seen in parts of KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng,” Ramaphosa said. “The path of violence, of looting and anarchy, leads only to more violence and devastation. It leads to more poverty, more unemployment, and more loss of innocent life. This is not who we are as a people.”

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(MOSCOW) — Alena Denisavets said she had been looking for her husband for more than a day when she got a text message from a lawyer who she believed was working for Belarus’ feared security services, still known today as the KGB.

Her husband Youras Ziankovich had vanished while on a trip to Moscow in April. She said she learned from the hotel where he was staying that unknown men had taken him. Now, she was hearing from the place she had never wanted him to be.

“I kind of tried to calm down and to understand what happened; why he’s in Minsk, [Belarus], why this person is contacting me from the KGB; [and] who is this person,” Denisavets told ABC News from Texas last week. “I was shocked, I was shaking, I was crying.”

Belarus’ KGB later announced it had taken Ziankovich. The men who took him filmed the abduction and it was later aired on Belarusian state television. As Ziankovich approached his hotel in Moscow, three men grabbed him and forced him into a van.

Ziankovich is a lawyer with U.S. citizenship and a long-time opponent of Alexander Lukashenko, the authoritarian leader of his native Belarus. For more than a decade, Ziankovich had lived in the United States, where he gained political asylum and then citizenship, and ran a law practice from Texas.

After he was seized in Moscow, he was driven nearly 700 miles across the border to Belarus and placed in a KGB jail in Minsk, according to Belarusian authorities. His wife has not been able to speak with him since, nor have the United States consular staff, despite requests to do so.

Zianokovich was grabbed that day in Moscow along with another Belarusian opponent of Lukashenko, Alexander Feduta, shortly after the two had eaten lunch together. Feduta, who more than a decade ago served as spokesman for Lukashenko, is a literary critic and now a vocal critic of his former boss.

About a week after the men were taken, Lukashenko announced to journalists that Belarusian security forces had thwarted a supposed coup attempt against him and accused Ziankovich and Feduta of planning it.

Belarus’ KGB claimed the two men were part of a U.S.-backed plot to assassinate the Belarusian authoritarian leader and abduct his children.

“We have seized them in Moscow,” Lukashenko told reporters. “They flew from the U.S. His last name is Ziankovich.”

The U.S. State Department responded quickly to Lukashenko’s claim, saying that “any suggestion that the U.S. government was behind or involved in an assassination attempt on Lukashenko is absolutely untrue.”

Denisavets said the coup claims against her husband were ridiculous, invented by the Lukashenko regime to create a justification for repression in the country, where he is currently straining to crush a protest movement that broke out against him last year.

“They need a story, kind of a very loud story,” Denisavets said. “Everyone is a terrorist, a potential terrorist, if he is against the government.”

She accused Belarus and Russia of collaborating to kidnap her husband.

Belarusian state television aired a lengthy report on the supposed coup attempt several days after he was taken. It included hidden camera footage showing Ziankovich and Feduta meeting in a Belarusian-themed restaurant in central Moscow with some unknown men.

The surveillance footage had been released by Russia’s Federal Security Service or FSB, its powerful domestic intelligence agency.

The FSB later said Ziankovich’s seizure had been a joint operation with the KGB. And president Vladimir Putin has since supported Lukashenko’s claim of the coup plot, criticising the West in his annual state of the nation address for not condemning it.

Most outside experts have expressed scepticism about the coup allegations, noting the improbable way in which it was supposedly planned and that those involved have no connections with the military or significant influence.

To back up the claims about the coup, Belarusian state television aired video from a Zoom call, where it alleged Ziankovich and the others were discussing their plans.

But Alexander Perepechko, a political analyst who participated in the Zoom call, said that claim was preposterous and that in reality the call had just been an academic discussion.

“This is the first time in my life that I’ve seen people like us playing quote-un-quote ‘coup d’etat’ using Zoom,” Perepechko, who lives in exile in the U.S., told ABC News. “There was no secrecy, there was no conspiracy. It was an academic conversation.”

Perepechko said the call had been a “war gaming” exercise where the participants had discussed different possibilities for how Belarus’ political crisis might end. Although he and others present were passionate to see the end of Lukashenko’s rule, he said, they had no means or experience for organizing a coup.

“We just became part of a big game,” he said. “And we were just kind of unlucky those people … are in KGB prison in Minsk now because we talked about a sensitive topic.”

Hanna Liubakova, a journalist and Atlantic Council non-resident fellow, said she did not believe the coup allegations were real.

“I don’t really think a coup d’etat might be planned by Zoom,” she said. “I think that’s another kind of fairy tale, another story that the regime tries to show.”

Liubakova said she believed it was possible that Ziankovich and Feduata might have been tricked into going to Moscow on false promises about possible assistance against Lukashenko, but that the idea they might have orchestrated a real coup was not credible.

“It’s all being kind of presented in this way because Lukashenko needs to justify repressions,” she said.

The mass protests that broke out following the contested election in August 2020 came close to toppling Lukashenko at the time. But he has since gradually strangled the protest movement through continuous repression, and in recent months, has gone on the offensive.

This week the regime moved to close down several popular independent media organizations. At the same time, it has aggressively targeted its opponents in exile. In May, Belarus forced down a Ryanair passenger flight with another opposition blogger onboard, Roman Protasevich.

Since then, Protasevich has repeatedly been paraded in front of journalists and publicly recanted his former opposition to Lukashenko under what his family and other opposition figueres say is intense pressure and likely torture.

Ziankovich and Feduata have both been shown appearing to admit guilt in videos aired on state television.

“When you are taken as a prisoner, you say whatever they want you to say to save your life and not to make things worse,” said Perepechko.

The democratic opposition estimates there are at least 500 political prisoners currently in Belarus and thousands have been detained since last August.

It is unclear when Ziankovich might be placed on trial. Aside from the denial of any conspiracy to assassinate the Belarus leader, the U.S. State Department has issued only curt statements on his detention, saying it is aware of it and trying to assist him.

Denisavets says she has written about her husband’s case to President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, as well as her local senator and Congressional representatives. But she said that so far she had only received one response from the office of Sen. Ted Cruz.

Denisavets said she had to keep hoping that he would be freed. She believes the current situation in Belarus cannot last.

“I just want to say to him if he sees me, that I love him. … I wait for him here and I will do whatever is possible to release him, to help him,” she said, holding back tears. “It’s an occupation of the country and it will not last such a long time. The regime will not stay on the blood of people. It will end, and very soon.”

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(WASHINGTON) — First lady Jill Biden will attend the opening ceremony of the Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan, which will be held on July 23, according to the office of the first lady.

The Summer Olympics were supposed to kick off in Japan’s capital last year on July 24 but were postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic and are now scheduled to take place from July 23 to Aug. 8. Despite the year delay, COVID-19 continues to rip through the country, mudding up the games with controversy and calls to cancel.

To address some of those concerns, organizers unveiled a series of “playbooks” with new rules and guidelines for how they plan to hold safe and successful Games in Tokyo this summer amid the pandemic. The rules include spectator gaps, a ban on cheering, mandatory COVID-19 testing and more.

Asked last month whether the first lady would attend, President Joe Biden said, “That’s the plan.”

“Well, we’re trying to work that out now,” he told White House reporters as he departed for a trip to Wisconsin. “That’s the plan.”

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(LONDON) — More than two dozen people, mostly foreigners, have been accused of playing a role in the assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moise last week. Now, authorities have arrested a Haitian-born Florida resident who they say acted as a middleman between the alleged assassins and the unnamed masterminds.

The man, identified as 63-year-old Christian Emmanuel Sanon, was accompanied by several of the suspected assailants when he allegedly flew to the Caribbean island nation on a private jet in early June, according to Leon Charles, head of the Haitian National Police. Sanon had hired the Colombian nationals through a Florida-based Venezuelan security firm to protect him and his business. But they later received a new mission: arrest the president of Haiti, according to Charles.

“The operation started from there,” the police chief said during a press conference Sunday, adding that several more men joined the group before they stormed Moise’s home in Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince, at around 1 a.m. local time on July 7.

The 53-year-old head of state was shot and killed while his wife, Martine Moise, was wounded. She has since been transferred to a Florida hospital for treatment and underwent surgery on Saturday, according to Haitian interim Prime Minister Claude Joseph.

It’s unclear how the alleged assassins were able to gain access to the private presidential residence. Haitian Ambassador to the U.S. Bocchit Edmond told ABC News on Friday that the group proclaimed to be agents from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration — something which the Haitian and U.S. governments have both denied. However, Edmond said it’s “obvious” that the group had “some internal help,” too. He described them as “international mercenaries.”

Charles said 26 Colombian nationals are suspected of having a hand in killing Moise. So far, 18 of them have been arrested along with two U.S. citizens and three Haitian nationals, including Sanon. Five Colombian nationals are still at large while three have been killed, according to Charles, who described them as “dangerous.”

While searching Sanon’s house in Haiti, authorities discovered a hat with the “DEA” logo, 20 boxes of bullets, various gun parts, four automobile license plates from the Dominican Republic, two cars and correspondence with unidentified individuals. Charles said Sanon came to the country with “political objectives.”

Public records show Sanon has lived in Florida. In a video posted to YouTube in 2011, Sanon identifies himself as a doctor and accuses Haiti’s leaders of corruption, saying that “they don’t care about the country, they don’t care about the people.”

“Nine million people can’t be in poverty when we have so much resources in the country,” Sanon said. “We can’t take it anymore. We need new leadership that will change the way of life.”

Authorities have identified the detained Americans as 35-year old James Solanges and 55-year-old Joseph Vincent.

Haitian Judge Clement Noel, who is close to the case, told ABC News on Friday that he has interviewed the two Americans. They claimed to be working as translators for the group and denied being mercenaries, according to Noel. Solages said he found the job on the internet and that they were supposed to arrest Moise rather than kill him, Noel told ABC News.

A website for Solanges’ charity describes the Florida resident as a “certified diplomatic agent” who previously worked as a bodyguard at the Canadian Embassy in Port-au-Prince. ABC News could not independently verify those claims.

The U.S. Department of State is “certainly aware of the arrest of the two U.S. citizens who are in Haiti and continue[s] to closely monitor the situation,” deputy spokesperson Jalina Porter said Friday, declining to comment further because of “privacy considerations.”

The Haitian government requested that the United States send troops in the wake of the president’s assassination to help stabilize the turbulent, impoverished country and secure its critical infrastructure, such as oil reserves and the international airport. Instead, the U.S. government agreed to send senior officials from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to assist with the probe, according to the White House.

Michel Dessources, a spokesperson for the Haitian prime minister’s office, told ABC News on Sunday that the U.S. officials have arrived in Haiti.

In an interview with ABC News on Friday, Haiti’s interim prime minister said Moise was tortured before he was killed and that authorities believe they “have the right people” in custody.

“Mercenaries came to the president’s house, they tortured him and they killed him,” Joseph told ABC News. “We staunchly believe that justice will be provided to the President Jovenel Moise.”

Haiti’s line of succession remains unclear. But Joseph, who has declared a “state of siege” and is currently in charge with help from the country’s military and the national police force, has indicated that he would only take control temporarily until a new president is elected. The international community has called on Haiti to go ahead with presidential and legislative elections slated for later this year.

Moise’s political opponents had argued that his five-year presidential term ended in February, while the late president said he had one more year left because the disputed 2016 election delayed his inauguration until 2017.

Moise had been governing by decree since January 2020, after the country failed to hold legislative elections and the legislature’s mandate expired. Opposition leaders accused him of wanting to return Haiti to a dictatorship.

Earlier this year, Moise ordered the retirement of three Supreme Court judges and the arrest of nearly two dozen people, including prominent officials, who he alleged were plotting a coup. Violent protests against Moise erupted, prompting the president to declare a state of emergency in parts of the country in March.

The growing constitutional crisis along with economic woes, escalating gang violence and a deadly COVID-19 outbreak have undermined efforts to rebuild Haiti from a devastating earthquake in 2010 and Hurricane Matthew in 2016.

Moise had told a Spanish language newspaper in January that he feared people wanted to kill him. But Edmond, the Haitian ambassador to the U.S., told reporters last week that there was “no warning” ahead of the pre-dawn attack.

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(NEW YORK) — Claude Joseph, the interim prime minister of Haiti, said in an interview with ABC News that former President Jovenel Moise was tortured before he was killed and vowed to bring the perpetrators of the assassination to justice.

“Mercenaries came to the president’s house, they tortured him and they killed him,” Joseph said. “We captured about 20 of them. They are currently in custody. And we believe, we staunchly believe, that justice will be provided to the President Jovenel Moise… We do have the right people [in custody].”

At around 1 a.m. local time on Wednesday, an armed group stormed Moise’s residence and shot and killed the head of state. The group claimed to be U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents during the raid, according to Haitian Ambassador to the U.S. Bocchit Edmond, which both the Haitian and U.S. governments have denied.

In the interview on Friday, Joseph said his main focus was to bring justice to Moise’s family as the leadership crisis threatens to bring more hardship and chaos to one of the poorest countries in the world.

Joseph, who appeared emotional in the interview, said he was “shocked” at the manner of Moise’s death.

On Saturday, an audio message from Martine Moise, the first lady of Haiti, who was wounded in the attack and airlifted to Florida to receive treatment, was released from her official Twitter account. A Haitian official told ABC News that it was authentic.

“This great act of murder makes me and my children cry, and I know you are crying too,” she said. “This act has no name, because it must be a crime out of bounds to assassinate a president like Jovenel Moise without giving him the opportunity to utter a word.”

At least 17 suspects have been arrested in connection with the assassination, including two U.S. citizens, identified by the authorities as James Solages, 35, and Joseph Vincent, 55.

Haitian Judge Clement Noel, who is close to the case and said he had interviewed the pair, told ABC News they claimed to be working as translators for the group and denied being mercenaries. According to Noel, Solages said he found the job on the internet and that they were supposed to arrest Moise rather than kill him.

“We are certainly aware of the arrest of the two U.S. citizens who are in Haiti and continue to closely monitor the situation,” U.S. State Department deputy spokesperson Jalina Porter said.

Fifteen of those arrested were Colombian nationals, some of whom are believed to have military backgrounds, according to the Colombian authorities. Two Colombian nationals were killed in a shootout in Port-au-Prince on Wednesday, Noel confirmed.

Letters viewed by ABC News show the Haitian government asking both Secretary of State Antony Blinken and the United Nations to send troops to help stabilize the the turbulent Caribbean nation and support national police. The troops were also requested to protect key infrastructure, including the airport, ports and gas terminals, as well as to help maintain electoral security.

On Saturday, a senior administration official told ABC News that “there are currently no plans to send U.S. military assistance to Haiti.”

The White House said Friday that FBI and Department of Homeland Security officials would be sent to Haiti to assist with the investigation into the assassination.

While Haiti’s streets remain relatively quiet, Joseph’s authority has been contested by another candidate for the position of prime minister, Ariel Henry, who was scheduled to take over before the assassination this week. Henry and his supporters have questioned Joseph’s legitimacy.

Prior to the assassination, Moise’s opponents claimed the former president had overstayed his time in power, while the U.S. and U.N. both backed his claim that his term was scheduled to end in February 2022.

State Department spokesperson Ned Price said that the U.S. would continue to work with Joseph since he is the incumbent, saying that U.S. officials had also been in contact with Henry, urging calm.

Joseph Lambert, the president of Haiti’s Senate, has positioned himself as the next interim president, though it remains to be seen who he would back him. Eight sitting senators have so far signed a memorandum in support of Lambert’s appointment, but the situation is constitutionally unclear.

Asked about the political power struggle, Joseph said that his main focus was on the investigation into Moise’s assassination.

“I don’t know if there is a power struggle. I’m not paying attention to whether or not there is a power struggle. I’m paying attention to giving justice to President Jovenel Moise… but I was interim prime minister. After the tragic death of Jovenel Moise I had to take charge and I did.”

ABC News’ Marcus Moore, Conor Finnegan, Sarah Kolinovsky and Kirit Radia contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(LONDON) — As the coronavirus pandemic rages on in some parts of the world, the upcoming Summer Olympic Games are set to be unlike any others.

The 2020 Summer Olympics were supposed to kick off in Japan’s capital last year on July 24. But the games were postponed due to COVID-19 and are now scheduled to take place from July 23 to Aug. 8. The Summer Paralympics will follow, beginning Aug. 24 and ending Sept. 5.

Over the past few months, organizers have unveiled a series of “playbooks” with new rules and guidelines for how they plan to hold safe and successful games in Tokyo this summer amid the pandemic. The playbooks warn that failure to comply with these rules — such as refusing to get tested for COVID-19 or intentionally disrespecting mask wearing or physical distancing measures — may result in disciplinary consequences. The Japanese government has also announced some restrictions that apply to those partaking in the Tokyo Olympics.

Here’s a look at some of the COVID-19 measures in place for the games.

Testing and screening

All games participants — from athletes to fans — will be required to take two COVID-19 tests on two separate days within 96 hours of their flight to Japan. Both tests must use one of the methods approved by Japanese health authorities, and at least one of the two tests have to be taken within 72 hours of departure.

Individuals must obtain negative COVID-19 test results certificates to bring with them to Japan and be prepared to show them before boarding their flight. If a test is positive or individuals experience any symptoms of COVID-19 in the 14 days prior to their trip, they have to immediately self-isolate in line with local rules.

Upon arrival in Japan, individuals must take a quantitative saliva antigen COVID-19 test at the airport. Those who test positive must isolate or receive medical treatment in a hospital in accordance with the instructions of the Japanese health authorities.

Athletes and officials who test positive at the airport will be taken by dedicated transport to the COVID-19 clinic at the Olympic and Paralympic Village for a confirmatory nasopharyngeal PCR test. If that test is also positive, they must isolate or receive medical treatment in a hospital, in accordance with the instructions of the Japanese health authorities.

Meanwhile, games participants who live in Japan must continue to follow the local COVID-19 countermeasures already in place. They have to take a COVID-19 test 72 hours prior to arriving at the Olympic and Paralympic Village or participating in the games events, including official training.

During the games, athletes and all those in close proximity will have to undergo daily testing. All other participants will be tested daily for a period of three days after their arrival in Japan. Residents of Japan, as well as those from overseas who have been in the country for more than 14 days, may be asked to take a COVID-19 test before their role at the games begins.

Individuals will also have their temperatures checked every time they enter the Olympic and Paralympic Village or a games venue. Those who have COVID-19 symptoms or recently tested positive for the virus will be refused entry.

In addition to undertaking all such countermeasures, games participants who are traveling from a country identified by the Japanese government as presenting a higher level of COVID-19 risk must follow an additional set of rules before their arrival and during their stay in Japan. The list of such countries is divided into two groups, which are determined by the Japanese government and are subject to change.

Athletes, officials and other stakeholders, including journalists, who are traveling from countries listed in group No. 1 must be tested for COVID-19 every day for seven days prior to their flight to Japan and keep their physical interaction with others to an absolute minimum. Those coming from countries listed in group No. 2 must be tested every day for three days prior to their departure and keep their physical interaction with others to an absolute minimum.

Upon arrival in Japan, athletes and officials from countries in both groups will be tested every day, as is the case for all athletes and officials, and they will not be allowed to physically interact with anyone from another team, delegation or country for the next three days.

Other stakeholders coming from countries listed in group No. 1 will be tested every day for seven days after their arrival in Japan. Those from countries listed in group No. 2 will be tested for the first three days after arrival. Their testing regime thereafter will be defined based on the nature of their role. Stakeholders from countries in both groups will not be allowed to physically interact with anyone from another delegation or country for three days after arrival.

Quarantining

All games participants who are not living in Japan must quarantine at their accommodation upon arrival for the next three days.

During that period, individuals — except for those who traveled from countries listed in group No. 1 and 2 — will be permitted to perform essential games-related activities if they test negative for COVID-19 every day.

Vaccination

Although organizers encourage everyone to get vaccinated against COVID-19, the playbooks state that immunization will not be a requirement to participate in the games.

All of the rules and guidelines outlined in the playbooks will apply regardless of whether someone has received the vaccine.

Spectators

All spectators — domestic and foreign — have been banned from Olympic venues in Tokyo during the games, in an effort to reduce the risk of COVID-19 infection. Seiko Hashimoto, president of the Tokyo 2020 organizing committee, said it was a difficult decision but that they had “no other choice.”

The move followed an announcement from Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, who declared another state of emergency in Tokyo due to rising COVID-19 cases. The declaration takes effect July 12 and lasts through Aug. 22, meaning the Olympics will be held entirely under emergency measures.

A decision on spectators at venues in areas where emergency measures are not in force will be determined by the local government authorities. Fans have already been banned from lining the route of the Olympic marathon and race walk events, the location of which was moved hundreds of miles away from Tokyo to Hokkaido prefecture.

Meanwhile, a decision on spectators at Paralympic venues will be made when the Olympic Games end.

Where fans are allowed, the playbooks state that they will be barred from cheering, shouting, singing or whistling while watching competitions in order to prevent transmission through exposure to respiratory droplets. They also must maintain as much distance as possible from others to avoid physical contact.

Face masks, hand washing and social distancing

All games participants must wear a face mask at all times, except when eating, drinking, training, competing or sleeping. They are also urged to wash and sanitize their hands regularly, disinfect surfaces, minimize social interaction with others and avoid enclosed spaces and crowds where possible.

Individuals must maintain a 2-meter distance from athletes and at least 1 meter from others at all times, including in operational spaces. They should avoid unnecessary forms of physical contact, including hugs, high-fives and handshakes, and should spend time only with the people identified as their regular contacts.

Individuals should also eat their meals alone or while keeping 2 meters away from others, unless instructed otherwise.

Public transport

All games participants — except for those living in Japan — are banned from using public transport for the first 14 days of their stay in the country, unless it is the only option to reach certain locations, such as a venue in a remote city. They must otherwise use dedicated games vehicles or the Transport by Chartered Taxi service when traveling to permitted destinations.

Residents of Japan have to adhere to counter-measures when using public transport.

All participants must only leave their accommodation to go to official games venues and limited additional locations that are outlined in their respective “activity plan.”

ABC News’ Rachel Katz, Drew Millhon and Anthony Trotter contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(WASHINGTON) — Senior officials from the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security will be deployed to Haiti to assist the government’s investigation of the assassination of President Jovenel Moise, the White House announced Friday.

The assistance comes after two U.S. citizens were among the 17 men arrested by Haitian authorities for the head of state’s shocking murder, which threatens to plunge Haiti further into chaos amid competing claims to power.

The political and security crises afflicting the Caribbean country are rivaled only by the coronavirus pandemic. Haiti is one of only a handful of countries in the world that has yet to distribute a single dose of COVID-19 vaccine, and that will once again be delayed because of the deep insecurity, according to a source familiar with the matter.

The Haitian National Police have requested U.S. assistance, according to the Biden administration, which is deploying senior FBI and DHS officials to assess the situation. But the limits of American power — and interest — in Haiti are clear, as its government grapples to maintain control of several growing challenges.

Seventeen suspects have been detained, according to interim Prime Minister Claude Joseph’s office, including two Americans and 15 Colombians.

Four other suspects were killed by police in a shootout late Wednesday, according to Haitian officials. Leon Charles, chief of Haiti’s National Police, said Thursday that eight other suspects were on the run, according to the Associated Press.

Four members of Moise’s security detail are also wanted for questioning, according to Haitian government commissioner Bed-Ford Claude, including the head of his security detail.

It’s unclear how the assailants were able to access the private presidential residence. The group said they were agents from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, according to Haitian Ambassador to the U.S. Bocchit Edmond, a claim that the Haitian and U.S. governments have denied. It may have gotten them past some security, although Edmond told ABC News it’s “obvious” that the group of “international mercenaries,” as he called them, had “some internal help,” too.

One of the detained Americans has been identified as 35-year old James Solanges, according to Mathias Pierre, Haiti’s elections minister who declined to name the other American.

On a website for his charity, Solanges, a Florida resident, described himself as a “certified diplomatic agent” and said he previously worked as a bodyguard at the Canadian embassy in Haiti — claims that ABC News could not independently verify.

“We are certainly aware of the arrest of the two U.S. citizens who are in Haiti and continue to closely monitor the situation,” State Department deputy spokesperson Jalina Porter said Friday, declining to comment further because of “privacy considerations” and referring questions to Haitian authorities leading the investigation.

The White House announced it would deploy senior officials from the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security to assess the situation and provide assistance to Haitian authorities.

The Haitian government had requested assistance from the FBI, saying it “can play a critical role in rendering justice,” and called for sanctions on “all perpetrators who are directly responsible or aided and abetted in the execution of the assassination of the President,” according to a letter from Ambassador Edmond to Secretary of State Antony Blinken and obtained by ABC News.

The U.S. is also being called upon to help calm the political turmoil, especially amid competing claims to power and the threat of gang violence erupting again on the streets.

Haiti’s line of succession had already been blurred by its political turmoil. Political opponents argued Moise’s five-year term ended in February, while he said the term ended in February 2022, five years after his 2017 inauguration — a claim backed by the U.S. and United Nations.

But who is in charge is further confused because Moise selected Ariel Henry, a surgeon and former minister, to serve as his new interim prime minister just days before his assassination. While Henry has told some local media outlets that he is the rightful leader, the U.S. is backing Joseph in his claim of legitimacy.

Because “Claude Joseph was the incumbent in the position… we continue to work with Claude Joseph as such,” Price said Thursday, adding that U.S. officials have been in touch with him and Henry and urging calm.

Joseph and Blinken spoke by phone Wednesday night — another boost of support — and the U.S. has backed his messages of stability and his calls for free and fair elections and national dialogue.

The transfer of power to Joseph is not in line with Haiti’s constitution, which says the president should be replaced by the head of the Supreme Court who is “invested temporarily with the duties of the president” by the National Assembly. But the country’s chief justice died from COVID-19 just two weeks ago, and the legislature has been disbanded since January 2020 after the country failed to hold legislative elections in October 2019.

Elections for the National Assembly and president have already been scheduled for late September, but many critics and political opposition leaders have said the country is not in position to hold them freely or fairly. It’s unclear if Joseph will push to move ahead with them, or even be able to, but the State Department said Thursday those elections should go ahead as planned.

One major hurdle to holding those contests is the COVID-19 pandemic, which continues to rage in Haiti. Cases last month were as high as they were one year prior, and the country has yet to receive any doses from COVAX, the international program to provide vaccines to low- and middle-income countries.

UNICEF was preparing to ship vaccines to Haiti as soon as this week but because of the assassination and ensuing turmoil that no longer looks likely, a source familiar with the shipments told ABC News.

“Rising gang criminality and increased insecurity has hindered humanitarian operations in the outskirts of Port-au-Prince,” UNICEF said in a statement Friday, adding it has “stepped up its efforts to use more sophisticated logistics and consider alternative routes to bring assistance more effectively to children in need.”

U.S. ambassador to Haiti Michele Sison was able to return to the capital yesterday from Washington, where she was attending previously scheduled meetings — a sign, perhaps, that the embassy has no plans to evacuate American personnel. Price declined to comment on security there, except to say the embassy is “constantly evaluating” the situation and would remain closed to the public through Monday.

ABC News’s Aicha El Hammar, Sarah Kolinovsky, Victor Ordonez, and Kirit Radia contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.