Haiti News Politics
18 Moïse assassination suspects flown to Miami as U.S. case widens to 30 indicted
U.S. prosecutors have transported 18 defendants from Haiti to Miami in the 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moïse. A grand jury has indicted 30 people in total. An indictment is an allegation — every defendant is presumed innocent unless proven guilty.
On September 21, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida announced that 18 defendants had been transported from Haiti to Miami in connection with the July 7, 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moïse. A federal grand jury has indicted 30 people in total for alleged roles in the conspiracy. Among those transported was former anti-corruption official Joseph Felix Badio, according to AFP reporting.
The extraditions move the centre of gravity of the case to a U.S. courtroom, five years after Moïse was killed in his home — the event that opened Haiti's current political vacuum, in which no elected successor has taken office and the gang crisis has grown.
The prosecution is already moving on several tracks. Christian Emmanuel Sanon's federal trial began on September 28 in Miami, where he pleaded not guilty. Earlier this year, in May 2026, a Miami jury convicted four men in the same case. The 18 newly transported defendants will now go through the federal process in Florida alongside those proceedings.
Prosecutors stress — and this desk repeats — that an indictment is an allegation, and every defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in court.
Reporting based on: Reuters (explainer). The facts come from the credited reporting; the words are our desk’s own.
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