18 Suspects in Jovenel Moïse assassination transferred to U.S.
Eighteen suspects in the 2021 assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse were flown from Haiti to Florida on Sunday to face federal charges, and U.S. prosecutors unsealed an indictment naming 30 defendants in all, including the leader of a Haitian gang, the Miami Herald reported.
A U.S. military aircraft landed at Port-au-Prince’s international airport shortly before 11 a.m. According to Miami Herald, It was there to pick up Joseph Félix Badio and 17 Colombian former soldiers accused of taking part in the killing. Haitian government and police sources gave the same breakdown to the French news agency AFP.
U.S. officials said the removal was not an extradition but “a foreign transfer of custody,” the Herald reported. U.S. Attorney Jason Reding Quiñones of the Southern District of Florida called it “the next major phase in our pursuit of accountability,” according to reports by Reuters and The Associated Press.
The indictment, unsealed late Sunday with four names redacted, includes Vitel’homme Innocent, leader of the Kraze Baryè gang and a member of the Viv Ansanm gang coalition, which controls much of the Port-au-Prince area, the Herald reported. Innocent, already wanted by the FBI in the kidnapping of U.S. citizens in Haiti, faces three counts, including conspiracy to kill or kidnap Moïse.
Prosecutors accuse him of working with the owners of two Doral-area security firms known collectively as CTU, and with a Broward County lender, to overthrow the president. They also accuse him of later helping to hide Colombian mercenary Mario Antonio Palacios Palacios and former Haitian Sen. Joseph Joel John after the assassination, the Herald reported.
About half of those newly indicted are charged in the central conspiracy to kill or kidnap Moïse, the newspaper said. The rest face wire fraud and government loan fraud charges. Prosecutors accuse them of unlawfully obtaining COVID-19 relief money and using it to finance the plot. An FBI analyst testified at an earlier trial that the operation cost roughly $343,000, paid for through loans, credit cards, wire transfers and pandemic relief funds, according to the Herald.
The FBI has arrested about half a dozen of the newly indicted defendants, including Samir Handal in Miami, the Herald reported. It said Handal provided food and housing to Christian Emmanuel Sanon, a Haitian-American pastor from South Florida who is set to stand trial next week on charges of plotting to kidnap or kill Moïse. All defendants are presumed innocent unless proven guilty.
Moïse, 53, was shot dead on July 7, 2021, at his private residence by a group of about 20 Colombian mercenaries with military training. His close protection team did not intervene. In May, a federal court in Miami found four men guilty of conspiring to kill or kidnap Moïse, conspiring to provide material support and violating the U.S. Neutrality Act. They face up to life in prison. Prosecutors said they were tied to CTU and were drawn in by the prospect of lucrative contracts if Moïse were removed.
Colombia’s Foreign Ministry said it is following the transfer of 17 Colombian citizens closely. It said Bogotá took no part in the decision or in the process that led to it, which it called a matter for the authorities of the countries involved.
In Port-au-Prince, Pierre Espérance, executive director of the National Network for the Defense of Human Rights (RNDDH), said Monday on Panel Magik that Haitian justice has relinquished the case to the American justice system, Le Nouvelliste reported. He said that five years after proceedings began in Haiti, the country’s courts had accomplished little.
Haiti currently has no president. The country is preparing to hold its first presidential and legislative elections since 2016, along with a constitutional referendum, on Dec. 13 if security conditions allow.
