Former Haitian senator John Joël Joseph was sentenced Tuesday, December 19 in the United States to life in prison for his role in the assassination of former President Jovenel Moïse. He is the third suspect to be tried for these facts in the United States. The man pleaded guilty and promised to cooperate to obtain a more lenient sentence, to no avail.
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John Joël Joseph was very demonstrative during this Tuesday’s hearing before Florida federal judge José Martinez. With tears in his eyes, he swore he was never part of a plan to assassinate the Haitian president Jovenel Moïse.
However, in the presentation of the facts so far, he admitted to having attended preparatory meetings whose purpose was to conspire to kill the former head of state. It is difficult to know the reasons for this change of line. For federal judge José Martinez, the former senator nevertheless ventured into dangerous territory.
The kidnapping thesis
In the meantime, John Joël Joseph is not the only one to mention the thesis of the kidnapping alone. Another major suspect, this time in Haiti – according to information collected by the Florida newspaper The Miami Herald – Joseph Felix Badio, told Haitian judge Walther Wesser Voltaire that the objective was to kidnap the former president and not to kill him.
For John Joël Joseph’s lawyer, his cooperation with the American authorities should have spared his client such a heavy sentence. But sentence adjustments will still be possible later, Judge Martinez suggested.
Read alsoHaiti: arrest of Joseph Félix Badio, key suspect in the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse