MIAMI ( Associated Press) – A former Haitian senator is facing charges in the United States related to the assassination of former Haiti President Jovenel Mosse last year, officials said.
John Joel Joseph made his initial appearance in Miami federal court on Monday, according to court records. The Haitian national was extradited to the US from Jamaica on Friday, facing charges of conspiracy to commit murder or kidnapping outside the United States and providing material aid in the form of death, knowing or intending that this Such physical support shall be used to prepare or lay out. Conspiracy to kill or kidnap. He faces a possible life sentence.
According to a criminal complaint, Joseph and others, including about 20 Colombian citizens and several dual Haitian-American citizens, participated in a plot to kidnap or assassinate Haiti’s president, who was ultimately killed at his home in Haiti on July 7.
Joseph, along with his wife and two sons, was arrested in Jamaica in January.
In March, he agreed to be extradited to the US, meanwhile, his family requested asylum in Jamaica, but it was unclear whether the Caribbean island’s government had allowed it. Joseph’s attorney, Donahue Martin, did not immediately return a message for comment.
According to a report from Haiti’s National Police, which The Associated Press obtained last year, at least one person identified Joseph as one of the leaders accused of plotting to kill Mosse. The source said Joseph had paid in cash for the rental cars used by the suspects before the murder and met them.
Joseph is one of more than 40 suspects arrested in the president’s assassination, and the third to be extradited to the US to face charges as proceedings in Haiti, with at least two judges withdrawing from the case.
The other two suspects recently extradited to the US are Haitian-Chilean businessman Rodolph Jaar, who was arrested in the Dominican Republic in January, and former Colombian soldier Mario Antonio Palacios, who was arrested in Jamaica in October.
Joseph is a well-known politician and opponent of the Tate Black party of the slain president.
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