Former Haitian senator sentenced to life in US prison for role in president’s assassination

MIAMI — A United States court on Tuesday sentenced a former Haitian senator to life in federal prison over his role in the 2021 assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moise.

Joseph Joel John was sentenced by the Miami federal court after he pleaded guilty in October to three charges, including conspiring to kill and kidnap a person outside the US, and providing material support and resources to carry out the plot to kill Moise. John was extradited from Jamaica in May 2022.

Moise was killed during an attack on his private residence in Haiti’s capital Port-au-Prince on July 7, 2021. Haiti’s first lady, Martine Moise, was also shot but later recovered.

A probable cause affidavit filed in support of the criminal complaint in 2022 alleges that John admitted to helping obtain vehicles and firearms in service of the plot. He also admitted to attending a meeting with co-conspirators a day before Moise was assassinated, according to an affidavit from an FBI agent.

John was the third man charged in connection to Moise’s assassination, according to the US Department of Justice. Mario Antonio Palacios and Rodolphe Jaar were both arrested and charged in 2022.

Jarr, a Haitian-Chilean national, was sentenced to life in June after an earlier guilty plea on three counts, including conspiracy to commit murder or kidnapping outside the US and providing material support resulting in death, according to the plea agreement.

Court records show Palacios, a Colombian national, is scheduled to appear in court later this month.

A number of Haitian American citizens and at least 20 Colombians participated in the plot, according to the Department of Justice.

Haiti has seen deepening unrest since Moise’s assassination, with the spread of gangs and a wave of violence that has swept the impoverished Caribbean nation. Moise’s successor, Prime Minister Ariel Henry, has so far struggled to staunch the violence.

Attacks carried out by gangs on rival villages have included beheadings, rapes, and kidnappings, according to a report released last month by the UN Human Rights Office and the UN Integrated Office in Haiti.

In October, the UN Security Council approved the deployment of a multinational support mission to help Haiti’s national police fight gang violence, with Kenya taking a leading role and pledging 1,000 police to the mission.

However, the announcement did not specify when the security forces would arrive in Haiti, and the deployment has been tied up by legal challenges. — CNN