18 Suspects in Haitian President’s Killing Flown to the US to Stand Trial

Jason Reding Quinones, the prosecutor for the Southern District of Florida, has announced that on Sunday a military aircraft carrying 18 suspects in the assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse was flown to the United States.

“Today marks the next major phase in our pursuit of accountability for the murder of Moïse,” Quinones said.

In May, four men from South Florida were convicted of conspiring to kill the Haitian president by hiring mercenaries to murder him at his home in Port-au-Prince.

Prosecutors argued during the nine-week trial in a federal court in Miami that the men had gathered former Colombian soldiers and supplied them with money, weapons, ammunition and tactical vests in a plot to kill Moïse.

The 53-year-old president was shot dead in July 2021 at his private residence in the hills above Port-au-Prince, a killing that left a deep political void in the Caribbean nation and emboldened powerful gangs.

The assassination has fuelled multiple investigations and lawsuits in Haiti and the United States, while sparking competing theories about who ordered the killing and why. On Sunday, Quinones said 30 people had been charged in connection with the crime.