A Haitian citizen, suspected of participating in the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse in July 2021, he was arrested this Wednesday in Miami after his extradition from the Dominican Republic, a source from the Department of Justice told AFP.
Rodolphe Jaar will be the second person tried in the United States for Moise’s death, after the Colombian Mario Palacios, retired military officer who was charged on January 4 in Miami for his alleged participation in the assassination.
Following Jaar’s flight from Haiti, Dominican police arrested him on January 7, just six months after a commando raided the Haitian president’s private residence and shot him dead.
Jaar will appear before a judge for the first time on Thursday at (18:30 GMT) in a court in Miami, where criminal charges will be filed against him, the Justice Department source reported.
According to the Miami Herald, the suspect is a Haitian businessman who served a conviction for cocaine trafficking in the United States a decade ago.
The last friday, Jamaican authorities detained former Haitian senator John Joel Joseph, wanted by the police of his country in the framework of the investigation of Moïse’s murder.
More than 40 people, including 15 Colombians and Haitian Americans, have been detained in connection with the investigation.
However, many questions remain about the motives for the murder, which has plunged Haiti, a country plagued by poverty, insecurity and corruption, into even more uncertainty.