Rodolphe Jaar is one of 11 people arrested and charged in the US for alleged involvement in the assassination of the Haitian president.
A United States court has sentenced a Haitian-Chilean businessman to life in prison for his role in the plot to assassinate Haitian President Jovenel Moise in 2021.
A US federal judge in Miami sentenced Rodolphe Jaar on Friday, more than two months after the 50-year-old dual national pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit murder or kidnapping outside the US, as well as providing material assistance resulting in death.
In March, prosecutors had said Jaar was “responsible for supplying weapons to … co-conspirators to facilitate the execution of the operation” that resulted in Moise’s murder.
The president was killed on July 7, 2021, when a group of gunmen stormed his home in the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince, sending shock waves across the Caribbean country and around the world.
Jaar is one of 11 people arrested and charged in the US for their alleged role in the assassination, which further destabilized Haitian politics and sparked an ongoing wave of violence in the country.
US prosecutors had stated that Jaar had provided weapons and shelter to a group of Colombian mercenaries involved in the scheme.
Jaar is the only person to plead guilty, and the other 10 suspects charged in the US are currently beginning a jury trial in July.
The Miami Herald had previously reported that Jaar, a former U.S. government informant who cooperated in a cocaine smuggling investigation a decade ago, could face a more lenient sentence of less than 30 years because of his past association with federal officials.
On Friday, however, Judge Jose E Martinez opted for the maximum life sentence.
Loading documents state that the conspirators initially planned to kidnap Moise, but their plans changed and decided to kill him instead.
They had hoped to win profitable contracts from a new Haitian government after the assassination, US authorities claimed.
Haitian authorities have also arrested more than 40 people, including 18 former Colombian soldiers, for their alleged involvement in Moise’s murder. But the process in Haiti has been beset by setbacks and has been slow.
Separately on Friday, the US State Department imposed sanctions on former Haitian Prime Minister Laurent Lamothe, accusing him of embezzling at least $60 million in public funds for “private gain”.
“Through this act of corruption and his direct involvement in the management of the fund, he abused his role as a government official and contributed to the current instability in Haiti,” the department said in a statement.
The sanctions make Lamothe “generally ineligible for entry” into the US, it added.
The former prime minister has previously denied allegations of corruption and Lamothe filed a lawsuit last year challenge against sanctions imposed on him by the Canadian government.