Associated Press
U.S. authorities said Wednesday that a businessman accused in the July 7 killing of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse was extradited to face criminal charges in Miami after he was detained in the Dominican Republic.
“We can confirm Rodolphe Jaar is in U.S. custody in the Southern District of Florida,” said Nicole Navas, spokesperson at the Department of Justice. “He will be presented with criminal charges tomorrow at his initial appearance” at the federal court, she said in a written statement sent to The Associated Press.
Jaar, who was convicted of drug-trafficking charges a decade ago and once served as an informant for the U.S. government, was extradited from the Dominican Republic, where he was detained earlier this month.
Jaar is the second foreigner extradited to the United States to face charges related to the assassination of the Haitian president. Earlier in January, U.S. authorities arrested a former Colombian soldier, Mario Antonio Palacios Palacios, after he fled from Haiti to Jamaica. A Jamaican judge ordered him deported to Colombia, but he was detained in Panama during a layover by U.S. authorities who had been in touch with him while he was still in hiding.
The arrests come more than six months after the squad allegedly made up of former Colombian soldiers, Haitian police officers and others went to the president’s residence to carry out his assassination. More than 40 people have been arrested in the case.
A criminal complaint and affidavit charging Jaar in the conspiracy case has not been unsealed.
Palacios was the the first person to be formally charged in Moïse’s assassination. In a criminal complaint drafted by the FBI, he is charged of conspiracy to commit murder or kidnapping outside the United States, and providing material support resulting in death, knowing that such support would be used to carry out a plot to kill the Haitian president.
