Haiti opened its 2026-2027 judicial year on Monday, October 5, at the Court of Cassation on the Champ-de-Mars in Port-au-Prince, with a promise that a new Penal Code and a new Code of Criminal Procedure will take effect on January 1, 2027.

Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aimé attended with members of the government, diplomats, judges and representatives of the police and the armed forces. “There is no lasting security without a strong justice system,” he said.

Judge Jean Joseph Lebrun, president of the Court of Cassation and of the Superior Council of the Judiciary, presented the results of the past year: 286 decisions by the Court of Cassation, 249 rulings by the five courts of appeal and 6,388 cases handled by the courts of first instance. According to Le Nouvelliste, he urged judges not to give up.

Fils-Aimé listed steps taken against prolonged pretrial detention, including the release of several detainees in Jacmel and Port-au-Prince. He also cited the return of criminal jury sessions at the Port-au-Prince court of first instance after an eight-year break, and the launch of two specialized judicial units in the capital.

The ceremony came two weeks after the judicial council accused the government of violating judicial independence by sending 18 suspects in the Moïse assassination case to the United States without the investigating judge's approval.