A businessman with dual Haitian and Chilean nationality who helped former Colombian soldiers obtain weapons to assassinate Haitian President Jovenel Moïse in 2021 was sentenced to life in prison in the United States on Friday, nearly two months after have admitted their participation in the assassination.
Rodolphe Jaar had pleaded guilty in March to conspiring to commit murder or kidnapping outside the United States and providing material support resulting in death. Federal judge José E. Martínez revealed the sentence in a hearing held in the federal courts in downtown Miami.
Jaar faced a maximum sentence of life in prison, but by pleading guilty He sealed a plea bargain in which he agreed to cooperate with the investigation in the hope of receiving a lighter sentence.
The prosecution, however, explained to the judge in documents submitted before the sentencing hearing that by pleading guilty, Jaar admitted his responsibility and deserved the maximum sentence. His lawyer, Frank Schwartz, had insisted that he be lighter as a result of the collaboration agreement with the government.
The businessman, who knew how to act as an informant for the US government and had been convicted of drug trafficking a decade ago, is the only one of the 11 arrested and accused in the United States for the murder of Moïse who has declared himself guilty until now. The other 10 are still facing their charges and are scheduled for a jury trial in mid-July, though the date could be pushed back.
Moïse was killed on July 7, 2021 when a group of unknown individuals broke into his home in Port-au-Prince. He was 53 years old.
In addition to Jaar, among those accused of participating in the murder former Colombian soldiers Mario Palacios and Germán Alejandro Rivera García appear in Miami; former Haitian Senator John Joel Joseph; Haitian-Americans James Solages, Joseph Vincent and Christian Emmanuel Sanon; the American Federick Joseph Bergmann; the Colombian Arcángel Pretel Ortiz, the Venezuelan-American Antonio Intriago and the Ecuadorian-American financier Walter Veintemilla.
The Haitian government has arrested more than 40 people for their alleged role in the murder, including 18 former Colombian soldiers.
Jaar arrived in the United States in January 2022 after being detained in the Dominican Republic and has been held in federal prison ever since. According to the US authorities, he voluntarily agreed to be transferred to Miami to face the accusations.
Authorities in the Dominican Republic said they detained him with the help of the US government when he tried to enter from Haiti.
According to the accusations, the objective of the conspiracy was initially to kidnap the haitian president, but then changed its purpose to kill him. The documents indicate that several of the conspirators entered Moïse’s house to assassinate him.
Jaar, according to the accusation, was responsible for supplying the Colombians with weapons to carry out the operation. Several of the former South American soldiers remained in a house controlled by Jaar, according to the charges.
