Former Haiti senator faces US charges linked to assassination of president

John Joel Joseph was a political opponent of the slain president

A photo of Jovenel Moise (AP)

The assassination of former Haitian president Jovenel Moïse last year has led to the extradition of a former senator from the country to the United States.

In an announcement on Monday, US authorities said John Joel Joseph was extradited from Jamaica on Friday in connection with the killing of Moïse.

He faces charges of conspiring to commit murder or kidnapping outside the United States and for providing material support resulting in death and conspiracy to kill or kidnap.

According to a criminal complaint filed in court on Monday, Mr Joseph has been charged along with two others, Mario Antonio Palacios and Rodolphe Jaar, who were arrested earlier this year.

Mr Jospeh, who faces life imprisonment if convicted, was arrested in Jamaica in January along with his wife and two sons. It was not clear whether or not they had been granted asylum in Jamaica.

Authorities also accuse 20 Colombian citizens and several dual Haitian-American citizens of participating “in a plot to kidnap or kill the Haitian President,” who was fatally wounded at his residence last July.

Haitian police killed four suspects and arrested two others within hours of the assignation, which plunged the world’s poorest county into further instability.

A report from Haiti’s National Police published last year meanwhile identified Mr Joseph as one of the leaders of the Moïse assassination plot, having allegedly paid in cash for rental cars that the suspects used and met with them ahead of the killing, reported The Associated Press.

The investigation which lead to the announcement of charges against the men involved the Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) unit, the FBI and Florida attorney Juan Antonio Gonzalez, US authorities said.

Mr Joseph is among 40 suspects arrested in connection with the death of Moïse, and the third person to be extradited to the US. Legal proceedings in Haiti have seen two judges step down from the case.

Additional reporting by The Associated Press.