The international investigation into the assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse has entered a new stage, with eighteen suspects cleared for extradition to the United States to stand trial in Florida.
The suspects were arrested in connection with Moïse’s killing in July 2021. Their identities and the individual charges they will face have not been specified. The extradition process comes as US authorities continue prosecutions and sentencing in a case that has produced 30 indictments.
Jason Reding Quiñones, the US Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, said: “Today marks the next major phase in our pursuit of accountability for the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse”.
Multiple arrests took place in the United States and abroad on Sunday. Other suspects remain in Haiti awaiting trial, including more than a dozen Colombian soldiers and a former Haitian government official.
In May, a Florida jury convicted four men over the killing: Arcangel Pretel Ortiz, Antonio Intriago, Walter Veintemilla and James Solages. Each had pleaded not guilty.
The jury found the four guilty of conspiring to kill or kidnap Haiti’s elected leader and of providing material support for the plot. At least five others have pleaded guilty and are serving life sentences.
The investigation has involved defendants in different countries, including Colombian soldiers and people based in the United States. The wider alleged conspiracy, including the methods and sources of financing, has yet to be set out in full.
Reding Quiñones said prosecutors would continue to pursue those connected to the killing. “We will follow the evidence wherever it leads, to those who financed it, facilitated it, supported it or committed crimes to make it possible. Five years later, we are still bringing defendants before American courts, and we are not finished.”
The eighteen extradition cases will move the prosecution further into US courts, while proceedings against suspects still in Haiti continue.
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