(Miami) Three men accused of participating in the 2021 assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse pleaded not guilty on Wednesday during a hearing in federal court in Miami, Florida.
American-Haitian James Solages, 37, and Colombian German Rivera, 44, have dismissed the charges against them, including that of “conspiracy to commit murder or kidnapping outside American soil”.
Christian Sanon, 54, who also has dual American-Haitian nationality, pleaded not guilty to “illegal export of goods from the United States”.
American justice accuses him in particular of having sent in June 2021, a month before the assassination of Mr. Moïse, twenty bullet-proof vests in Haiti without complying with the formalities of American customs.
A fourth suspect, American-Haitian Joseph Vincent, 57, did not speak in court as his lawyer was unable to attend the hearing.
The four defendants, extradited from Haiti to the United States two weeks ago, appeared dressed in the maroon uniform of prisoners, handcuffs and handcuffs.
Haitian President Jovenel Moïse was shot dead by an armed commando on the night of July 6 to 7, 2021 in his private residence in Port-au-Prince, without his bodyguards intervening. His death had further aggravated the chaos in this small poor country in the Caribbean.
The Haitian police had quickly arrested about forty suspects, including about twenty former Colombian soldiers, recruited according to them by a security company based in Florida, the CTU. The investigation then stumbled on the shortcomings of the local judicial system.
American justice, competent to judge the conspiracies hatched on its soil, took over.
According to her, James Solages, Joseph Vincent and German Rivera met on July 6, 2021 near the president’s house for a weapons distribution, and the first announced that the purpose of the mission was to kill Mr. Moses.
The three men incur life imprisonment and Christian Sanon, a 20-year prison sentence.
On Tuesday, US authorities also announced the arrest in Florida of four other suspects, accused of having planned and financed the assassination of the Haitian president.
These new arrests bring to 11 the total number of suspects incarcerated in the United States as part of this investigation.