The US Justice Department announced Monday that a third defendant has been charged with complicity in a murder in Florida for his alleged role in the assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moise last July.
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Former Haitian Senator Joseph Joel John, 51, who appeared before a judge in Miami on Monday, was extradited from Jamaica and charged with conspiring to murder or kidnap Mr. Moyes and providing equipment for that purpose, according to a press release.
Before him, the American justice indicted retired Colombian soldier Mario Palacios and the Chilean-Haitian citizen Rudolph Jarre for the same facts after their arrest abroad and extradition to the United States.
On July 7, 2021, a commando stormed the private residence of Haitian President Jovenel Moise in Port-au-Prince and fired 12 bullets at him.
US law applies in this case, because the plan was partly organized on US soil, in Florida, by Haitian American subjects.
According to American justice, the plot was initially intended simply to kidnap and detain the president of Haiti, but in the end it was decided to assassinate him.
Mario Palacios pleaded not guilty to the crimes he was accused of in February.
The three defendants face life imprisonment.
The sponsors and the exact motive for the assassination remain unknown to the general public at present.
