Yvon Neptune (born 8 November 1946 in Cavaillon, Haiti) is a Haitian politician and architect who served as the Prime Minister of Haïti from 2002 to 2004.

The mob was reportedly organized by Guy Philippe after Neptune gave an interview to Kevin Pina of KPFA Flashpoints in California and the Black Commentator, and Andrea Nicastro of the Italian daily Corriere della Sera.

Neptune was replaced on 12 March 2004 by an unelected provisional government led by Gérard Latortue, which had been appointed three days earlier.

On 27 March 2004, the provisional government banned Neptune from leaving the country, along with 36 other senior officials of the Aristide administration, in order to more easily investigate corruption allegations.

[2] On 19 February 2005, Neptune was taken into protective custody by United Nations peacekeeping forces and handed himself back[3] to Haitian authorities after a Port-au-Prince penitentiary breakout.

On 23 June, Juan Gabriel Valdes - the UN's special envoy to Haïti - criticized the Haitian government's handling of Neptune and called for his release from prison.

Subsequent investigations, including by the United Nations, revealed the massacre to be a struggle between two armed groups, with casualties on both sides.

The Commission referred the case to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACtHR), an autonomous judicial institution of the Organization of American States based in San José, Costa Rica, for further proceedings.

“From the beginning, the State failed its obligation to protect Mr. Neptune’s right to be heard by a court competent to hear the charges against him…as well as to an effective recourse,” the IACtHR said in a 60-page judgment issued publicly on June 6.

The Court singled out the National Penitentiary’s overcrowding, squalor, and lack of general security, as well as multiple threats to Mr. Neptune’s life during his incarceration.