Lawyer retained by families of 10 US missionaries held in Haiti says he fired local counsel

Lawyer for US missionaries fires counsel in Haiti

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — The Dominican lawyer for 10 U.S. Baptist missionaries charged with child kidnapping in Haiti says he has fired their local Haitian counsel.

Jorge Puello tells The Associated Press he fired Edwin Coq late Friday because the Haitian attorney asked for $60,000 to use to bribe the missionaries’ way out of jail. Coq denies that. He says the amount was the fee for his legal work.

Puello, a lawyer in the Dominican Republic, was hired by relatives of the missionaries after they were arrested and he retained Coq to represent them before a Haitian magistrate.

Coq told the AP before Puello’s comment Saturday that he was preparing to resign because families of the detainees hadn’t sent him promised money and maligned him.