Widow, ex-prime minister and former police chief indicted in 2021 assassination of Haiti’s president

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti —  A judge in Haiti responsible for investigating the July 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moise has indicted his widow, Martine Moise; former Prime Minister Claude Joseph; and the former chief of Haiti’s National Police, Léon Charles, among others, according to a report obtained Monday.

The indictments are expected to further destabilize Haiti as it struggles with a surge in gang violence and recovers from a spate of violent protests demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Ariel Henry.

Dozens of suspects were indicted in the 122-page report issued by Walther Wesser Voltaire, who is the fifth judge to lead the investigation after previous ones stepped down, including some who feared being killed.

Charles, who was police chief when Moise was killed and now serves as Haiti’s permanent representative to the Organization of the American States, faces the most serious charges: murder, attempted murder, possession and illegal carrying of weapons, conspiracy against the internal security of the state, and criminal association.

Meanwhile, Joseph and Martine Moise, who was injured in the attack, are accused of complicity and criminal association.

Charles could not be immediately reached for comment, and Martine Moise’s attorney did not return a message for comment,

Meanwhile, Joseph, the former prime minister, shared a statement with the Associated Press accusing Henry of “undermining” the investigation and benefiting from the president’s death.

“Henry ... is weaponizing the Haitian justice system, prosecuting political opponents like me. It’s a classic coup d’etat,” Joseph said. “They failed to kill me and Martine Moise on July 7th 2021, now they are using the Haitian justice system to advance their Machiavellian agenda.”

Joseph again called on Henry to resign and noted that while he was still prime minister, he invited the FBI to help local authorities investigate the killing and wrote the United Nations and OAS for help.

“I won’t stop my fight. Justice must be served,” he said.

In his report, the judge noted that the former secretary general of the National Palace, Lyonel Valbrun, told authorities that he received “strong pressure” from Martine Moise to put the president’s office at the disposal of Joseph because he needed it to “organize a council of ministers.”

Valbrun said that two days before her husband was killed, Martine Moise visited the National Palace and spent nearly five hours, from 10 p.m. to 3 a.m., removing “a bunch of things,” according to the report.

He said that two days after Jovenel Moise was slain, Martine Moise called and said, “Jovenel didn’t do anything for us. You have to open the office. The president told Ti Klod to create a council of ministers; he will hold elections in three months so I can become president, now we will have power.”

Joseph is known by the name Ti Klod.

The judge also stated in his report that Martine Moise “suggested” she took refuge under the marital bed to protect herself from the attackers, but he noted that authorities at the scene found that not “even a giant rat … whose size measures between 35 and 45 centimeters” could fit under the bed.

The judge said the former first lady’s statements were “so tainted with contradictions that they leave something to be desired and discredit her.”

U.S. prosecutors have described a plot hatched in Haiti and Florida to hire mercenaries to kidnap or kill Moise, who was 53 when he was slain at his home near the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince.

Martine Moise and others who were interrogated said they heard heavy gunfire starting around 1 a.m. July 7 that lasted 30 to to 45 minutes before armed men burst into the Moises’ bedroom.

Moise said that she was lying facedown on the ground, injured, when the suspects tilted her head and tugged one of her toes to ensure she “wasn’t alive.”

Once they left, Moise said, she dragged herself to her husband and whispered that she was going to try to get to a hospital.

“That’s when she noticed that the president was dead and that his left eye had been removed from the socket,” the report stated.