Former Haitian Senator Pleads Guilty For Role In President Jovenel Moïse’s Assassination
Ex-Haitian Senator Joseph Joel John has pleaded guilty to charges related to the 2021 assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse.
According to Reuters, John appeared in U.S. Court on Tuesday (Oct. 10) and admitted to his role in the plot to murder Moïse, including providing rental vehicles to conspirators, attempting to obtain weapons and making introductions to gangs “whose support [the defendants] sought.”
John is scheduled to return to the Miami courtroom on Dec. 19 for sentencing.
He faces a possible life sentence. However, under a plea agreement with federal prosecutors, the U.S. government would recommend reducing the sentence if John cooperates with investigators, the Associated Press reports.
John was present at meetings to discuss Moïse’s assassination, including the night before the murder, according to his court statement.
On July 7, gunmen killed Moïse in a bedroom at his residence. His wife, Martine Moïse, was shot but survived the assault by pretending to be dead. She said the killers searched her husband’s files and fled after taking documents, the president’s wife told The New York Times weeks after the assassination.
The assassination added to the turmoil and chaos in the Caribbean nation, including foreign intervention, debt, political instability, natural disasters and unrelenting gang violence.
In January 2022, John was arrested in Jamaica and became the third person charged with a role in the murder. He then agreed to be extradited to the U.S. from Jamaica. John pleaded guilty to conspiracy to kill and kidnap a person outside tU.S. territory, providing material support to carry out a violation that resulted in a fatality and conspiring to provide the support needed to carry out the assassination.
John, an opponent of Moïse’s Tet Kale political party, is one of 11 people charged in South Florida for the assassination. Among them, Haitian-Chilean businessman Rodolphe Jaar received a life sentence in June. Meanwhile, former Colombian soldier German Alejandro Rivera Garcia awaits sentencing on Oct. 27.
