Haiti: the widow of assassinated president Jovenel Moïse, charged with the assassination

(AFP) Haitian justice has charged about 50 people for their involvement in the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse in 2021, including his wife, Martine Moïse, a former prime minister and a former senior police officer, local press reported.

On Monday, the Haitian media outlet AyiboPost published a document on the internet, purportedly an order from the investigating judge overseeing the case.

The Haitian media AyiboPost published on Monday on the Internet a document that it presented as an order from the judge in charge of investigating the case. The 122-page text, however, "does not clearly identify the intellectual authors of the murder or the financiers."

According to the document, the judge asked that Martine Moïse and 50 other people be referred to criminal court to be tried on charges of "criminal conspiracy, armed robbery, terrorism, murder and complicity in murder, crimes committed against" Moïse.

"The consistent charges and evidence implicating the former first lady in the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse are sufficient," the document states. He added that "the former first lady's statements are so riddled with contradictions that they leave much to be desired and discredit her." The former interim prime minister, Claude Joseph, and the former director of the national police, Leon Charles, are among those indicted. The document indicates that there is "sufficient evidence" of complicity of both in the assassination of the Haitian head of state.

Parallel process in the United States

Jovenel Moïse was shot dead at his residence on July 7, 2021 by a commando unit of more than 20 people, mostly Colombian mercenaries, without his bodyguards intervening. Martine Moïse was injured in the attack. Haitian-American Joseph Vincent was sentenced in February by a Miami court to life in prison for his role in the murder. The US justice system opened proceedings against 11 people accused of participating in the murder, noting that the plot was hatched in Florida. Four of them were sentenced to life imprisonment, including Vincent.

Haiti is going through a serious political, humanitarian and security crisis, with armed gangs controlling entire areas of the country, and the number of homicides increased sharply in 2023. Moïse's assassination worsened the chaos in the poorest country on the American continent.