A 51-year-old Haitian-Chilean businessman was sentenced to life in prison on Friday for his role in the July 7, 2021 assassination of 53-year-old Haitian President Jovenel Moise, and injuring Moise’s wife, Martine.
The judgment against Rodolphe Jaar was imposed by Federal Judge José E Martínez for helping Colombian mercenaries access weapons to carry out the killing.
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Jaar is the first of the conspirators to be convicted and sentenced. US prosecutors said he was part of a plan in Haiti and Florida to reap lucrative contracts under a new administration. Court documents showed that the conspirators initially planned to kidnap Moise, but later changed the plan to kill him instead.
Jaar was responsible for supplying weapons to Colombian mercenaries for the operation and several of them stayed at a property that Jaar controlled.
Haitian lawmakers had said 26 Colombians and two Haitian Americans were among the heavily armed commando unit that assassinated President Moïse.
Jaar was detained in the Dominican Republic and arrived in South Florida in January 2022. He pleaded guilty in March to conspiracy to commit murder or kidnapping outside the United States, and to providing material support resulting in death.
Judge Martínez handed down the sentence at the federal court in downtown Miami. Jaar received the maximum sentence he faced despite his guilty plea and agreeing to cooperate with investigators in hopes of receiving a lighter sentence.
Other defendants in Miami include former Colombian soldiers Mario Palacios and Germán Alejandro Rivera García; former Haitian Senator John Joel Joseph; Haitian-Americans James Solages, Joseph Vincent, and Christian Emmanuel Sanon; American Federick Joseph Bergmann; Colombian Arcangel Pretel Ortiz; Venezuelan-American Antonio Intriago, and the Ecuadorian-American financier Walter Veintemilla.
