Rodolphe Jaar, after his arrest in the Dominican Republic in January 2022. HAITI NATIONAL POLICE
Haitian-Chilean businessman Rodolphe Jaar was sentenced to life in prison by a US federal judge this Friday for the July 2021 murder of President Jovenel Moïse. Prosecutors had charged Jaar with “conspiring to commit assassination or kidnapping outside the United States and providing material assistance that resulted in the death” and stated that “he was responsible for providing weapons to Colombian accomplices, to facilitate the performance of the operation”. where Moïse died. Jaar was arrested in the Dominican Republic in January and volunteered to travel to the United States, where in March he pleaded guilty to assisting the commandos that assassinated the Haitian president.
Moïse was assassinated at his residence in Port-au-Prince on July 7, 2021 by a squad of at least 28 assassins. So far, 11 people have been arrested in the United States accused of involvement in the assassination, further destabilizing the chaotic Caribbean country. Those identified include 24 former soldiers from Colombia who entered the room where 53-year-old Moïse slept with his wife Martine Moïse and shot the couple dead. The woman saved her life by pretending to be dead. She said in her statement that the gunmen searched the room for documents after the shooting.
An investigation published by the New York Times in December 2021 found that the president was assassinated for trying to send the US a list of people linked to drug trafficking. The newspaper reported that the President has taken several measures that have raised alarms among his enemies and aim to target organized crime and corrupt officials who are collaborating with crime. Moïse had ordered a customs purge, the demolition of a secret airstrip used as an operations center for planes from Colombia and Venezuela, and an investigation into the eel trade allegedly used as a cover for money laundering.
The EFE news agency reported this Friday that after hearing federal judge José E. Martínez’s verdict against businessman Jaar, the court hearing the case recommended that “the defendant be committed to a federal facility in South Florida as soon as possible.” as possible based on his past and the crimes for which he was convicted.” In the document, Jaar is accused of “giving money for weapons, food and shelter” to the hit men who murdered Moïse. US authorities are hoping that the trials of the other 10 people jailed for the assassination move forward.
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