Overview:
A United States judge handed down the maximum sentence to John Joël Joseph, making the former Haitian senator the third person convicted in the 2021 assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse.
A United States federal judge sentenced a former Haitian senator, John Joël Joseph, to life in prison on Tuesday for his role in the assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse in 2021.
Joseph had pleaded guilty in October to three charges, including conspiring to kill and kidnap a person outside the U.S. Judge José E. Martínez, handed down Joseph’s sentence after a 30-minute hearing, the Associated Press reported Dec.19.
“Regardless of whether you attempted this assassination, you are entering dangerous territory,” Martínez told Joseph, who said the plan wasn’t to kill Moïse, but to arrest him.
Joseph is the third man sentenced in connection to Moise’s assassination. The first two individuals sentenced were Haitian-Chilean businessman Rodolphe Jaar and retired Colombian army officer Germán Alejandro Rivera García.
In all, the U.S. arrested 11 suspects likely to receive a life sentence in connection with this case.
U.S. court documents refer to the newly convicted ex-senator as Joseph Joel John, using the latter as his surname. However, the disgraced politician served Haiti and is known there as John Joel Joseph, so The Haitian Times is using that surname.
Kidnapping and arrest plot turns to murder
U.S. investigators acknowledge that the plot initially focused on kidnapping Moïse as part of a “purported arrest operation, but it ultimately resulted in a plot to kill the President.” Investigators said in the 2022 arrest affidavit that Joseph was present when another plotter got a former Haitian judge to sign off on a written request to arrest and imprison Moïse. Joseph helped to obtain vehicles, attempted to obtain firearms and attended a meeting with co-conspirators the day before the killing.
According to a report by Haiti’s Central Directorate of the Judicial Police (DCPJ), another suspected plotter, Joseph Vincent, told investigators that Joseph planned to serve as prime minister after Moïse’s departure from power. Investigators also revealed that Joseph worked with another suspected plotter, Joseph Félix Badio, who was arrested by the Haitian police after two years on the run.
“Regardless of whether you attempted this assassination, you are entering dangerous territory.”
Judge José E. Martínez during sentencing hearing
Other plot participants include Rodolphe Jaar, who is now serving a life sentence in the U.S., and Francis Cineus Alexis. According to the DCPJ report, the men were involved in renting vehicles, purchasing firearms and acquiring materials necessary for the attack carried out by Colombian commandos at the president’s home Pétion-Ville on July 7, 2021.
Haitian investigation continues
Meanwhile, the Haitian justice has yet to initiate any trials to determine the sentences of those potentially involved in the crime within Haiti. The last two individuals arrested in connection with the case are Badio and the mayor of Jacmel, Maky Kessa.
Numerous prominent people have been questioned in Haïti and in the United States as part of the investigation including former president Michel Martelly, who was called to court Oct. 3.
Eight additional suspected plotters remain in U.S. custody and are awaiting trial as the prosecution moves forward. Six defendants – Antonio Intriago, James Solages, German Rivera and Mario Antonio Palacios Palacios, Arcangel Ortiz and Alejandro Rivera Garcia – are charged with conspiring to kill and kidnap overseas. They face life in prison, like Jaar and Joseph did. Two defendants, alleged ringleader Christian Emmanuel Sanon, and Frederick Bergman, are charged with violations of US export control laws for allegedly transferring bulletproof vests by falsely claiming the armor were medical supplies.
Vincent, a Haitian-American citizen who pleaded guilty in an American federal court this month, awaits sentencing in February 2024, while seven other defendants await trial.
U.S. court records show Palacios, a Colombian national, is scheduled to appear in court later this month.
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CHECK this link for the Office of Public Affairs of Department of Justice to find any info about Palacios Palacios scheduled appearance.