The assassinated Haitian president’s widow conspired to have her husband killed
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Assassinated Haitian president’s widow, Martine Moïse among dozens indicted over his death (Jovenel Moïse)
Assassinated Haitian president’s widow, Martine Moïse among dozens indicted over his death (Jovenel Moïse).
A Haitian judge in charge of the investigation into the assassination in 2021 of the country’s last president, Jovenel Moïse, has charged 50 people including his widow and a former prime minister, according to a document leaked to local media.
According to the 122-page document from Judge Walther Wesser Voltaire, made public by AyiboPost, the president’s widow, Martine Moïse, conspired with the former prime minister Claude Joseph to kill the president in order to replace him herself.
Moise, 53, was gunned down in July 2021 at his private residence by a group of about 20 assailants, most of them Colombian mercenaries, in a raid that left the former first lady injured.
His security detail did not intervene to protect him.
The judge’s order calls for the arrest and trial of those charged.
In it, the magistrate ordered the referral of Moise’s widow, Martine Moise, and 50 other people to the criminal court “to be judged on the facts of criminal conspiracy, armed robbery, terrorism, assassination and complicity in the assassination.”
The document goes on to say that “indications of the involvement of the ex-first lady… are sufficient” to indict, adding that her statements were “so tainted by contradictions that they leave something to be desired and discredit her.”
Moïse has criticized on social media what she calls unjust arrests and political persecutions.
Joseph, meanwhile, told the Miami Herald that the president’s de facto successor as leader, Ariel Henry, the current prime minister, was the main beneficiary and was “weaponizing the Haitian justice system” to persecute opponents in “a classic coup d’etat”.
A spokesperson for Henry’s office said the judge was independent and “free to issue his order in accordance with the law and his conscience”.
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Henry was appointed to replace Joseph, who now leads an opposition party, days before the assassination.
He pledged to hold elections but has postponed these indefinitely citing a devastating earthquake and the growing power of heavily armed criminal gangs.
The gangs are estimated to control most of the capital, and Kenya is preparing to lead a UN-ratified international force to support Haitian police, though prior abuses by foreign missions and allegations against Henry’s government have left countries wary of volunteering support.
A separate case on Moïse’s killing is being tried in Miami, where six of 11 defendants have pleaded guilty to a plot to send Colombian mercenaries to kidnap Moïse, a plan that at the 11th hour was changed to a plot to murder him.
According to US charges, the conspirators sought to replace Moïse with a Haitian-American pastor, Christian Emmanuel Sanon.
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