According to a legal document released via a news press release, late last year, a Haitian judge looking into President Jovenel Moïse’s July 2021 killing issued an arrest warrant for the former president’s wife for not showing up for their scheduled meeting so he could question her about the case.
Judge Walther Voltaire, who is in charge of the longstanding investigation into the death at Jovenal Moïse’s private property, signed the order on October 25. According to the authorities, a gang of heavily armed individuals shot Moïse twelve times, injuring his wife, Martine Moïse.
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The warrant was brief, only stating that Martine Moïse would be interviewed by authorities regarding the case. That is about all the detail in it.
It makes no mention of or implication of participation.
Martine Moïse was not immediately available for comment, but a Florida-based attorney for hers said he was attempting to get in touch with the lawyer.
People who were close to her did not respond to messages.
Martine Moïse received medical attention at a Florida hospital after being evacuated there following the July 7, 2021, assassination.
Less than two weeks later, she unexpectedly made her way back to Haiti, shocking many.
She is said to have moved to the US since then and has occasionally written on X, the website that used to be known as Twitter, discussing the assassination.
She wrote in December that the “assassins…feel that their reign of impunity and untouchability seems to be coming to an end.”
She reiterated her demand last month for an international tribunal to look into the matter, stating, “Haiti stand up so that the social injustice done to the people can be repaired.”
Attorneys for Martine Moïse filed a complaint against the people suspected of the assassination in June of last year, requesting an undefined jury trial and damages.
Requests for comment from Voltaire, the judge overseeing the case, were not immediately answered.
He became the sixth judge to supervise the case when he was appointed in May 2022.
A judge who resigned the previous year claimed to be afraid for his life, while another quit the day after one of his subordinates passed away inexplicably.
More than forty individuals, including eighteen Colombian troops and at least twenty Haitian police officers, were detained in connection with the killings, but the case has essentially stagnated in Haiti.
In the meanwhile, several extradited suspects in the case are being tried by US authorities. Of the eleven suspects in Miami, four—including a former senator from Haiti and a retired officer from the Colombian army—have entered guilty pleas.
