On Friday (June 2), a former informant to the U.S. pleaded guilty to the 2021 assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse and was sentenced to life in prison.
Several news outlets reported that 51-year-old Rodolphe Jarr, a dual citizen of Haiti and Chile, is the first to be convicted of plotting to kill Moïse, who had served as president from 2017 to his death in 2021.
Jarr pleaded guilty in March in U.S. Federal court in Miami to conspiracy to provide material support, material support, and conspiracy to kidnap and kill Moïse.
In the United States, ten additional defendants were charged with the assassination; dozens more were arrested in Haiti.
According to reporting by the Associated Press, U.S. District Judge José Martínez gave Jarr the maximum sentence after a 10-minute hearing.
Prosecutors said they believe most of the planning for the murder took place in South Florida.
Initially, those involved in the scheme planned to kidnap Moïse and take him by plane to an unknown place but could not find the plane or the weapons necessary to carry out the plan.
Officials argued that those involved in the scheme wanted to win contracts under Moïse’s successor.
Court documents also revealed that Jarr provided Columbian soldiers and others involved in the plot with weapons, food, and housing.
Jarr also agreed to help federal prosecutors build their case against the other defendants.
Jarr has up to two weeks to appeal the sentence; his attorney revealed Jarr had not yet decided whether to appeal. He was convicted of drug trafficking in 2013 and sentenced to more than four years in prison.
Jarr was also arrested in the Dominican Republic last year on charges of murdering Moïse.
Moïse was shot 12 times in his home in the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince. His death plunged the impoverished country into further turmoil as gangs gained more territory.
Since Moïse’s death, the number of murders, rapes, and kidnappings has also increased.
