Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry on Tuesday replaced the chief public prosecutor who had been seeking charges against him as a suspect in the assassination of President Jovenel Moise, plunging the country into a fresh political crisis.

Later on Tuesday, a letter from Prime Minister Henry to Prosecutor Claude dated Sept. 13 emerged in which he said he was firing him for “grave administrative error”, without going into detail. In a separate letter dated Sept. 14, he named Frantz Louis Juste to the post.

Mr. Henry, a political moderate and neurosurgeon whom Moise named prime minister just days before his death in an attempt to reduce political tensions, has sought to forge a new consensus between different political factions.

But allegations over his possible involvement in Moise’s killing are now overshadowing that.

Prosecutor Bed-Ford Claude informed that phone records showed Henry had twice communicated with a man believed to be the mastermind behind Moise’s killing on the night of the crime.

Prime Minister Henry dismissed his request to discuss the matter as politicking and did not respond to the allegations.

Mr. Claude wrote on Tuesday to the judge overseeing the investigation into Moise’s slaying and ask him to charge Henry as a suspect.

He also wrote to Haitian migration services ordering them not to let the prime minister leave the country “due to serious presumption relative to the assassination of the president”.