Sun | May 12, 2024

A main suspect in killing of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse arrested after 2 years

Published:Friday | October 20, 2023 | 3:07 PM
Jovenel Moïse talks to journalists during an interview in his office in Petion-Ville, Haiti, Tuesday, November 29, 2016. Haiti police announced Thursday, October 19, 2023, the arrest of a former Haitian official considered one of the main suspects in the killing of President Moïse. (AP Photo/Dieu Nalio Chery, File)

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — A former justice official considered one of the main suspects in the killing of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse in 2021 was arrested Thursday in Haiti's capital after being on the run for more than two years, police said.

Joseph Badio once worked for Haiti's Ministry of Justice and at the government's anti-corruption unit until he was fired for alleged ethics violations weeks before the assassination.

Badio was arrested in the neighbourhood of Petion Vile in Port-au-Prince, National Police spokesman Garry Desrosiers said.

Moïse was shot 12 times at his private home on July 7, 2021, sending Haiti into a political crisis.

Several people had been arrested after Moïse assassination, including 11 men now in US custody.

Prosecutors in the US have alleged that there was a broad plot among conspirators in both Haiti and Florida to hire mercenaries to remove Moïse and benefit from contracts from a successor administration.

Last week, former Haitian senator John Joel Joseph — one of the 11 men in custody in the US — pleaded guilty to charges related to the assassination.

A federal judge set his sentencing for December 19.

The former senator was extradited from Jamaica to the US in June accused of conspiring to commit murder or kidnapping outside the United States and providing material support resulting in death.

Two other people also have pleaded guilty.

Haitian-Chilean businessman Rodolphe Jaar was sentenced in June to life in prison. The sentencing for former Colombian soldier German Alejandro Rivera Garcia is set for October 27.

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