Court postpones hearing for suspects in Haitian president's killing

Nineteen suspects accused in the July 2021 assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse arrived Monday at a courthouse as defence attorneys hoped they would be released, but a judge postponed their hearing once again.

The 17 Colombians, all former soldiers, along with two Haitians, waited for their hearing to start in a private residence in an upscale area in Haiti’s capital because a surge in gang violence had forced officials to physically shut down the Court of Appeals in downtown Port-au-Prince.

After several hours, a judge appeared and ordered the case postponed to later this month for unknown reasons.

“We hoped for the release of our clients,” said Nathalie Delisca, attorney for the 17 Colombians detained in the case.

Delisca declined to say where the suspects she represents are currently being detained.

Gangs raided Haiti’s two biggest prisons nearly a year ago and released thousands of inmates, including those in the National Penitentiary where suspects in the Moïse case were being held.

Delisca said her clients didn’t want to escape with the other inmates because "they are not guilty. They had nothing to do with the killing of Jovenel.”

Also present at Monday’s hearing were former city of Jacmel mayor Macky Kessa and Joseph Badio, who once worked for Haiti’s Ministry of Justice and at the government’s anti-corruption unit until he was fired for alleged ethics violations before the assassination.

Badio, considered one of the main suspects in the case, was arrested in October 2023.

He limped out of the hearing with help from Kessa. Details of his health condition were not immediately known.

Previously, attorneys for the Colombians had decried the deplorable conditions they faced at the National Penitentiary, warning they didn’t have enough food or water. However, the 17 Colombians who appeared in court Monday appeared to be healthy.

In a December statement, Colombia's consulate in Port-au-Prince said the suspects are being held in an unidentified place “where they now find themselves in much more dignified and favorable conditions.”

While the case against the suspects being held in Haiti is basically at a standstill, U.S. authorities have charged and sentenced several others.

In December 2023, a judge in Miami sentenced former Haitian senator John Joel Joseph to life in prison for conspiring to kill Moïse at his private residence on July 7, 2021, where he was shot at least a dozen times, plunging Haiti into a political crisis.

Also sentenced to life in prison are Colombian army officer Germán Alejandro Rivera García, Haitian-Chilean businessman Rodolphe Jaar and former U.S. government informant Joseph Vincent.

Overall, more than 40 suspects were arrested in the case. None in Haiti have gone to trial.