Extradited to the United States on Friday, May 6, 2022, John Joel Joseph appeared before a federal court in Miami yesterday, May 9, as part of the trial on the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse. The former parliamentarian presented as one of the main suspects in the assassination, on July 7, 2021, of the Haitian President, says he has confidence in the U.S. judicial system, reports the Miami Herald.
John Joel Joseph was transferred on May 6, 2022 to the United States by Jamaican authorities in accordance with the request of U.S. authorities.
He was arrested in Jamaica on January 15, 2022, and has since been detained there. The Jamaican authorities had rejected an asylum request made by the lawyers of former Senator Darlyne Edumé’s wife, it was learned.
The former senator from the West, John Joel Joseph, who was actively sought by the Haitian National Police, was apprehended a week after the arrest of businessman Rodolphe Jaar, known as “Dòdòf”, a drug trafficker convicted in the USA. The latter has already appeared in a U.S. federal court in connection with the murder of Jovenel Moïse.
John Joël Joseph is the fourth important suspect in the Pilgrim 5 magnicide to be arrested after former Colombian military officer Mario Antonio Palacios Palacios and Haitian businessmen Rodolphe Jaar and Samir Handal.
Joseph Felix Badio, who was presented as the intellectual author of the assassination of Jovenel Moïse and who allegedly had telephone exchanges with Prime Minister Ariel Henry after the crime, is still wanted.
The U.S. State Department is responsible for opening an investigation into the circumstances of the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse. A report is expected in about three months.