US to charge man suspected in assassination of Haitian president

On Thursday, a man suspected in the assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse is being charged in U.S. federal court.

Haitian-Chilean citizen Rodolphe Jaar is charged with “conspiring to commit murder or kidnapping outside the United States and providing material support resulting in death, knowing or intending that such material support would be used to prepare for or carry out the conspiracy to kill or kidnap,” according to a press release from the Justice Department.

Jaar is appearing in Miami on Thursday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Lauren Louisin of the Southern District of Florida. 

After six months on the run, the suspect was detained in the Dominican Republic and taken into U.S. custody on Wednesday, according to The New York Times. 

Court documents unsealed allege that Jaar, along with “approximately 20 Colombian citizens and a number of dual Haitian-American citizens,” conspired to kidnap or kill Moïse.

For his part in the scheme, Jaar is accused of providing weapons to the Colombian co-conspirators, several of whom stayed at a residence controlled by Jaar, according to the department. He faces a maximum sentence of life imprisonment if convicted on the charges he is facing.

Another suspect, Mario Antonio Palacios, was arrested by Department of Homeland Security agents and charged in Miami earlier this month in connection to the assassination.

According to the Times, the U.S. has increasingly taken the lead in investigating the murder of Moïse, who was shot in his bedroom on July 7.

Though Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry promised to seek justice for the former president’s murder, none of the more than 40 suspects detained in Haiti has been formally charged, the newspaper reported.