Investigation Ends With Widow of President Charged in Slaying

A judge investigating the July 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moïse issued a final report on Monday that indicts his widow, Martine Moïse; ex-Prime Minister Claude Joseph, and the former chief of Haiti's National Police, Léon Charles, among others. Charles, who now serves as Haiti's permanent representative to the Organization of the American States, faces the most serious charges: murder, attempted murder, possession and illegal carrying of weapons, conspiracy against the internal security of the state, and association of criminals. Martine Moïse and Joseph are accused of complicity and criminal association, the AP reports.

Charles could not be immediately reached for comment, and neither Joseph nor the spokesman for Martine Moïse's attorney responded to messages for comment. The judge's findings could further destabilize a country already struggling with a surge in gang violence and recovering from a spate of recent violent protests demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Ariel Henry. A total of nearly 50 suspects were indicted in the 122-page report released Monday. Another 11 suspects have been extradited to the US and charged in the slaying, with three of them already sentenced. US prosecutors have described it as a plot hatched in both Haiti and Florida to hire mercenaries to kidnap or kill Moïse, who was 53 when he was slain at his private home near the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince on July 7, 2021.

As a result of the plot, the judge wrote, "Unfortunately, the head of state was assassinated with ease." The report also said: "We were able to discover with insight the degree of participation and the role that each of the groups of delinquents who joined together under the influence of Machiavellian plans developed between authors, co-authors, accomplices and henchmen for the purposes of assassinating President Jovenel Moïse." (More Haiti stories.)