(AFP)— Prominent Haitian academic, Professor Patrice Derenoncourt, who was kidnapped last 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 and 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 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 scene of the incident and another later succumbed to his wounds.
Meanwhile, the 17 United States and Canadian missionaries kidnapped more than two weeks, are still being held by their abductors, who are demanding US$17 million ransom.
Police are being assisted by officials from the Federal Bureau of Investigation in the search for the missionaries.
