On Friday, a 51-year-old Haitian-Chilean businessman was sentenced to life in prison for his role in the killing of Haitian President Jovenel Moise at his private mansion overlooking Port au Prince on July 7, 2021.
Rodolphe Jaar was sentenced by Federal Judge José E Martnez for assisting Colombian mercenaries in obtaining weapons to carry out the murders, which also injured Moise’s wife, Martine, and required medical treatment in the United States.
According to Haitian legislators, the heavily armed commando force that assassinated President Mose included 26 Colombians and two Haitian Americans. Authorities reported at the time that 15 Colombians and two Haitian Americans had been apprehended. Three of the assailants were slain, while the other eight escaped.
Jaar is the first person to be convicted and punished following what US prosecutors described as a vast conspiracy by conspirators in Haiti and Florida to grab rich contracts under a new administration.
Jaar landed in South Florida in January 2022 after being arrested in the Dominican Republic. He holds both Haitian and Chilean citizenship and pleaded guilty in March to conspiracy to commit murder or kidnapping outside the United States, as well as providing material support that resulted in death.
According to court documents, the conspirators planned to kidnap Haiti’s president before changing their minds and killing him instead. Jaar was in charge of delivering weapons to Colombian mercenaries for the operation, and according to court documents, several of the former South American troops resided in a property Jaar managed.
Judge Martnez handed down the punishment at the federal court in downtown Miami on Friday during a 10-minute court hearing. Despite pleading guilty and promising to cooperate with investigators in the hopes of earning a lower sentence, Jaar received the maximum penalty he faced.
The businessman, who had entered the courtroom chained and with ankle shackles and wearing a prisoner’s beige shirt and jeans, bent his head as he listened to the judge’s verdict. He refused to make any statements to the judge and has two weeks to appeal the punishment.
Former Colombian soldiers Mario Palacios and Germán Alejandro Rivera Garca; former Haitian Senator John Joel Joseph; Haitian-Americans James Solages, Joseph Vincent, and Christian Emmanuel Sanon; American Federick Joseph Bergmann; Colombian Arcangel Pretel Ortiz; Venezuelan-American Antonio Intriago; and Ecuadorian-American financier Walter Veintemilla are among those charged in Miami.
Judge Martnez scheduled a hearing for August 21 to determine a possible fine.
