A former senator from Haiti was recently sentenced to life in prison by a US judge in Miami for his role in plotting the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse in 2021, which led to unheard-of unrest in the Caribbean country.
Regarded by US prosecutors as a conspiracy to hire mercenaries to abduct or assassinate Moïse, 53, on July 7, 2021, at his private residence outside the Haitian capital of Port-Au-Prince, John Joel Joseph is the third of 11 people seized and charged in Miami to be sentenced.
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A former senator from Haiti was recently sentenced to life in prison by a US judge in Miami for his role in plotting the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse in 2021, which led to unheard-of unrest in the Caribbean country.
Regarded by US prosecutors as a conspiracy to hire mercenaries to abduct or assassinate Moïse, 53, on July 7, 2021, at his private residence outside the Haitian capital of Port-Au-Prince, John Joel Joseph is the third of 11 people seized and charged in Miami to be sentenced.
US attorneys may advise courts to lessen a sentence if they find that the condemned party cooperates with their inquiry. The sentence reduction may occur months or years after the original sentence.
The maximum penalty was given at a roughly 30-minute hearing in Miami by Federal Judge José E. Martínez.
Joseph begged for forgiveness at the court and declared that he had no intention of killing the president of Haiti.
He sat next to his lawyer, shackled and with shackles on his ankles, listening to the judge’s decision while dressed in a beige prisoner’s shirt and pants.
“It turned out that the plan got overwhelmed, out of hand,” Joseph said in Creole. The plan changed to kill the president “but it was never my intention,” he noted.
After speaking with the former senator from Haiti, the judge declared that he would take the government’s request for a reduced sentence into consideration. However, Martínez ultimately sentenced him to life in prison.
“Whether you attempted or not the assassination, you enter into dangerous territory,” Martínez explained.
Two additional individuals who have received sentences in this case are retired Colombian army colonel Germán Alejandro Rivera García and Haitian-Chilean businessman Rodolphe Jaar. Each received a life sentence in jail. This month, Joseph Vincent—a dual citizen of Haiti and the United States—pleaded guilty. He will be sentenced in February 2024. Prior to that, he worked as a confidential informant for the US Drug Enforcement Administration.
In South Florida, seven additional defendants are awaiting trial in 2019.
The allegations state that a scheme to abduct or assassinate Haiti’s president was carried out by Joseph, Jaar, Rivera, Vincent, and other individuals, some of whom are dual citizens of Haiti and the United States. About twenty former Colombian troops were present.
After being detained in Jamaica in January, Joseph consented to be extradited to the United States in March.
In addition, nearly forty persons were detained by the Haitian authorities on suspicion of involvement in the murder.
Haiti has experienced a spike in gang violence since Moïse’s murder, prompting the prime minister to call for the deployment of military forces. Early in October, the UN Security Council decided to send a multinational force under Kenyan leadership to assist in combating the gangs.
The first set of about 300 cops is anticipated to be deployed by February, according to Kenyan officials who spoke with the AP. Authorities are now awaiting the outcome of a lawsuit that aims to prevent the deployment. January is when a decision is anticipated.
