Haiti judiciary denounces extradition of 18 Moïse suspects to US

Overview:

Haiti’s Superior Council of the Judiciary (CSPJ) said the government’s transfer to the United States of 18 suspects detained in connection with the investigation into President Jovenel Moïse’s assassination violated constitutional protections for judicial independence. The council revealed that the extradition, authorized by Justice Minister Patrick Pélissier at the request of U.S. authorities, was carried out outside the prescribed judicial framework and despite an order from the investigating judge barring the suspects’ transfer without his authorization.

PORT-AU-PRINCE — Haiti’s Superior Council of the Judiciary (CSPJ) said Tuesday that the government’s transfer of 18 suspects detained in connection with the President Jovenel Moïse’s assassination case to the United States without authorization from the investigating judge violates the constitutional guarantee of judicial independence 

The CSPJ said the transfer undermined the judiciary’s authority and was carried out outside the procedures governing suspects who remained under the authority of the investigating Judge Jean Denis Cyprien.

The council’s statement came two days after the government authorized the extradition of 17 former Colombian soldiers and Joseph Félix Badio, an ex-Haitian government official, to face federal charges in the U.S.

“When an investigating judge is properly seized of a case, any transfer of an indicted person falls under the judge’s authority and requires prior authorization, even in the event of an extradition request,” the CSJP, Haiti’s judicial oversight institution, said.

The dispute adds a new layer to a case that has stalled in Haiti without a trial for five years while the U.S. prosecution has produced convictions and guilty pleas. 

CSPJ challenges government’s decision, judge order at the center of the dispute

The controversy intensified after Haitian media reported that investigating Judge Cyprien had issued an order Sept. 15 prohibiting the transfer of defendants in the case without his authorization.

According to Passion Infos Plus, which said it had obtained a copy of the order, Cyprien instructed the Haitian National Police (PNH) and the National Penitentiary Administration (APENA) not to comply with any order from an authority other than himself to move defendants detained in connection with the case.

Copies of the order were reportedly sent to Pélissier, CSPJ President Jean-Joseph Lebrun and Port-au-Prince Government Commissioner Jean Fritz-Patterson Dorval.

The 18 defendants were nevertheless transferred to the United States on Sept. 20. The report said the transfer occurred without Cyprien’s approval.

But Justice and Public Security Minister Patrick Pélissier said the transfer was carried out under extradition mechanisms between Haiti and the United States.

In a statement Sunday, Pélissier said the decision would help advance the judicial proceedings, establish facts and determine responsibility, provide judicial guarantees and protect the proceedings from outside influence. He did not identify the specific Haitian legal provision authorizing the transfer.

The CSPJ, however, said the measure was taken “outside the prescribed procedural norms”.

The council’s statement did not itself identify a court ruling declaring the extradition unconstitutional. Rather, it presented the CSPJ’s interpretation of the constitutional and procedural requirements governing defendants who remain under the authority of an investigating judge. 

Suspects face U.S. charges

The 18 defendants appeared Sept. 21 in federal court in Miami after being transported from Haiti aboard a U.S. military aircraft. They are among 30 people indicted in the United States in connection with the assassination, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida.

The defendants face federal charges related to an alleged conspiracy to kill or kidnap a person abroad.

Moïse was killed at his private residence in Pèlerin, Pétion-Ville on July 7, 2021.

U.S. prosecutors allege that the broader conspiracy was organized and financed in South Florida. The newly unsealed indictment includes 30 defendants, of whom four are redacted, and accuses individuals of various roles in the plot.

U.S. Attorney Jason A. Reding Quiñones said prosecutors would continue pursuing people alleged to have financed, facilitated, or otherwise supported the assassination.

“When an investigating judge is properly seized of a case, any transfer of an indicted person falls under the judge’s authority and requires prior authorization, even in the event of an extradition request.”

Haiti’s Superior Council of the Judiciary 

“Our work did not end with the men who planned and carried out this assassination,” Quiñones said. “Five years later, we are still bringing defendants before American courts, and we are not finished.”

Haiti’s investigation remains stalled

The extradition comes five years after Moïse’s assassination, with no trial having taken place in Haiti.

The Haitian investigation has been repeatedly disrupted by changes in investigating judges, legal challenges, threats against judicial officials and deteriorating security conditions.

The Port-au-Prince Court of Appeals reopened the investigation after overturning a ruling by former investigating Judge Walter Wesser Voltaire, who had indicted nearly 50 people, including former first lady Martine Moïse, ex-Prime Minister Claude Joseph and other political figures and associates of the slain president.

Judge Cyprien is handling the current investigation, which was expanded to include additional investigative work.

The contrast with the U.S. proceedings has become increasingly pronounced. The U.S. case has produced multiple convictions and guilty pleas.

In May, a federal jury in Miami convicted Arcángel Pretel Ortiz, Antonio Intriago, Walter Veintemilla and James Solages for their roles in the conspiracy. The four defendants face life imprisonment. At least five other defendants have pleaded guilty in U.S. federal court and received life sentences, including former Haitian Sen. John Joël Joseph and Haitian-Chilean businessman Rodolphe Jaar.

The U.S. government has said its prosecution is based on alleged planning, financing and other conduct that occurred in the United States, giving American courts jurisdiction over the federal case.

For Haiti’s judiciary, however, the latest development has raised a separate question: whether the government’s decision to transfer defendants abroad while a Haitian judicial investigation remains active respected the authority of the judge handling the case.

The CSPJ’s statement raises the subject of Haiti’s judicial system, emphasizing that judicial independence and the authority of investigating judges must be respected even when foreign authorities request the extradition of defendants.

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