A 51-year-old Haitian-Chilean businessman was sentenced to life in prison on Friday for his involvement in the assassination of the 53-year-old Haitian President Jovenel Moise on July 7, 2021, at his private residence in Port-au-Prince.
Federal Judge José E. Martínez imposed the sentence on Rodolphe Jaar for assisting Colombian mercenaries in obtaining weapons to carry out the killing, which also left President Moise’s wife, Martine, injured and requiring medical treatment in the United States.
According to Haitian lawmakers, the heavily armed commando unit responsible for the assassination included 26 Colombians and two Haitian Americans. At the time, authorities had reported the capture of 15 Colombians and two Haitian Americans, with three assailants killed and eight still at large.
Jaar is the first person to be convicted and sentenced following what U.S. prosecutors described as a broad conspiracy involving individuals from Haiti and Florida seeking to secure lucrative contracts under a new administration.
Jaar, who was apprehended in the Dominican Republic, arrived in South Florida in January 2022. He holds dual Haitian and Chilean citizenship and pleaded guilty in March to conspiracy to commit murder or kidnapping outside the United States, as well as providing material support resulting in death.
Court documents revealed that the initial plan of the conspirators was to kidnap President Moise, but it was later changed to an assassination plot.
Jaar was responsible for supplying weapons to the Colombian mercenaries involved in the operation, and it was noted in the court documents that several former South American soldiers stayed in a house under Jaar’s control.
During a 10-minute court hearing on Friday, Judge Martínez handed down the maximum sentence to Jaar, despite his guilty plea and cooperation with investigators in the hopes of receiving a lighter sentence.
Jaar, dressed in a prisoner’s beige shirt and pants with handcuffs and ankle shackles, listened to the judge’s ruling with his head bowed. He chose not to make any statements to the judge and retains the right to appeal the sentence within two weeks.
Apart from Jaar, the other defendants in Miami include former Colombian soldiers Mario Palacios and Germán Alejandro Rivera García, former Haitian Senator John Joel Joseph, Haitian-Americans James Solages, Joseph Vincent, and Christian Emmanuel Sanon, American Federick Joseph Bergmann, Colombian Arcangel Pretel Ortiz, Venezuelan-American Antonio Intriago, and Ecuadorian-American financier Walter Veintemilla.
Judge Martínez scheduled a hearing for August 21 to determine the possibility of imposing a fine.
Source: Observer
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These people need to be in a place like Guantanamo Bay. Or they should be bombing Chile and the countries where the rest are from. Do like America. Forward and out of place.
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