Haiti coup suspect arrested

Mr Philippe slipped past Dominican authorities

A former police commissioner accused of masterminding last week's failed coup in Haiti has been arrested in neighbouring Dominican Republic, according to Dominican President Hipolito Mejia.

Immigration officials in the Dominican Republic were under orders to capture Guy Philippe when he was deported from Ecuador on Tuesday, but he initially evaded them.

Mr Mejia told a news conference on Friday that Mr Philippe had been caught, but gave no details of the time or place of the arrest.

About 30 armed men attacked the National Palace

The Haitian authorities believe that Mr Philippe was behind an attack on 17 December, when about 30 armed men tried to seize Haiti's National Palace. At least 12 people died in the raid.

The former police commissioner flew in to Ecuador the day after the coup attempt, but the country's authorities did not respond to Haitian requests to hand him over.

Instead they sent him to the Dominican Republic, which shares the Caribbean Island of Hispaniola with Haiti.

Tense relations

Mr Philippe has been wanted by Haitian authorities ever since a former soldier wounded in the coup attempt said the former police chief had been present at a meeting to plan the raid.

Mr Mejia said that the arrest was important to relations - which, historically, have been tense - between his country and Haiti.

But there is no extradition agreement between the two nations and the Dominican Foreign Ministry has said it will not hand the coup suspect straight to Haiti.

It is thought to be seeking a third nation to send him to instead.

Coup investigation

The arrest came as the Haitian Government announced it had appointed a judge to head an investigation into the coup attempt.

Judge Bernard Sainvil is to look into the attack and the subsequent violence, during which the offices of several opposition parties were set alight.

Correspondents say the coup, which the government blames on former army members, has revived concerns about Haiti's attempt to establish democracy following decades of dictatorship and military rule.

Authorities in Port-au-Prince say they have also arrested two other men in connection with the attack - a US businessman and the caretaker of the house where the coup is thought to have been planned, the French news agency AFP reported.