(CMR) President of Haiti's highest court, Supreme Court Judge René Sylvestre, who had tested positive for COVID-19, died Wednesday at the University Hospital of Mirebalais.
Sylvestre (58) served as head of the Superior Council of Judicial Power, the administrative arm of the judiciary, and its highest state institution, Miami Herald reported.
“The news of the death deeply saddens me, all members of the judiciary,” Haitian President Jovenel Moïse, who confirmed Sylvestre's death, said.
Moïse described Sylvestre as “a statesman, a faithful servant of the Republic.”
Jacques Letang, president of the Haitian Bar Federation, said Sylvestre's death presents “a huge institutional crisis” for the 12-member Supreme Court, now reduced to six and already undergoing a crisis, as well as for the Superior Council of Judicial Power, Miami Herald reported.
The Haitian government is yet to issue any COVID-19 vaccine, and it is not clear when the country will receive vaccines. A shipment of AstraZeneca vaccine that was supposed to arrive in the country last week was delayed.
According to the Miami Herald, the US government is in conversations with the Haitian government on the complexities of delivering a significant number of vaccine doses to the country, including Haiti's storage capacity and the logistics of shipping the vaccines in proper conditions.
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