US authorities charged a Haitian citizen on Thursday for his alleged involvement in the assassination of President Jovenel Moise in July, the Justice Department said in a statement. According to the indictment, Rudolf Jaar, 49, participated in “a plot to kidnap or kill the Haitian president.”
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Jaar is the second person tried in U.S for the death of Moise after the retired Colombian soldier Mario Palacios, charged on January 4 in Miami for his alleged participation in the assassination.
The designated arrived on Wednesday at Miami, in the southeastern United States, from the Dominican Republic, which extradited him. The authorities of the Caribbean country had arrested him on their territory on January 7, just six months after a commando broke into Moise’s private residence and shot him dead.
The defendant appeared this Thursday by videoconference before a federal court in Miami, where a judge read the two charges against him: that of conspire to commit murder or kidnapping outside the United States and providing material support resulting in death. Both are punishable by a maximum sentence of life imprisonment. The US Attorney’s Office assures that the plot against Moise “initially focused on kidnapping the president”, but that “it ended up leading to an assassination plan”.
(Also: Former Colombian military officer faces two charges in the US for the assassination of Haiti)
According to the statement, Jaar provided weapons to Colombian mercenaries to facilitate the operation against the president and housed several of those men in a residence controlled by him.
After the murder, he reportedly communicated with accomplices to help Colombians hide from Haitian authorities. the suspect acknowledged those facts during an interview with US authorities on December 9, 2021, outside the North American country, according to the indictment.
Jaar will appear before a judge again on Wednesday, January 26. More than 40 people, including 15 Colombians and Americans of Haitian origin, have been detained in connection with the research. However, many questions remain about the motives for the murder, which has plunged even more uncertainty into
Haiti, a country plagued by poverty, insecurity and corruption.
(You can continue reading: The dramatic account of the missionaries kidnapped in Haiti about their escape)
AFP
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