Eighteen people were flown from Haiti to the US state of Florida to stand trial for their alleged involvement in the assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moise five years ago.
Moise was shot dead at his home in the capital, Port-au-Prince, in July 2021, allegedly by a group of mainly Colombian mercenaries.
Previous Haitian investigations into the assassination have stalled due to widespread gang control and lawlessness in the country.
The extradition was “the next major phase in our pursuit of accountability” over the presidential assassination, US Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, Jason Reding Quiñones, said in a post on X.
“Five years later, we are still bringing defendants before American courts, and we are not finished,” Quiñones said on X.
He said that 30 suspects had been indicted over the killing so far.
US prosecutors allege that the planning and financing of Moise’s killing was orchestrated from Florida, as well as the Dominican Republic and Haiti itself.
Given the dire state of the justice system in Haiti, the onus has been on US prosecutors to bring the detainees to Florida to try the cases there.
When gunmen strode into Moise’s residence and murdered him in his bedroom, it shook the Caribbean nation to its core.
It shocked many Haitians that the 53-year-old president was assassinated with such apparent ease.
Those extradited on Sunday included a group of 17 Colombian ex-soldiers and a senior member of the then-Haitian Government, Joseph Badio, who worked in an anti-corruption unit at the country’s justice ministry.
A Miami-based security firm is accused of playing a key role in the hiring of the Colombian ex-soldiers.
“Today’s multi-location and international arrests underscore the FBI’s continued commitment to bringing all participants in this plot to justice,” FBI special agent Brett Skiles said on X.
Several men allegedly connected to the murder were killed by police at the time. Four people were convicted in a Miami court in May for their part in the conspiracy, which prosecutors have long said was planned and financed in Miami, as well as the Dominican Republic.
The men, whose charges included conspiracy to kill or kidnap Moise and conspiracy to provide material support over the killing, face possible sentences of life in prison.
The Colombian former soldiers have claimed they were mercenaries who had been convinced they were taking part in a coup but that they had been unaware of the intention to murder Moise.
Haiti has been engulfed in a wave of gang violence since the assassination of Moise.
At least 1,408 people were killed and 656 injured from April through to June this year, according to the UN Integrated Office in Haiti.
The country is preparing to hold its first presidential and legislative election since 2016 on December 13 – if the security situation allows.
By BBC News
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