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Haitian-Chilean dual citizen Rodolphe Jaar on Friday pleaded guilty before a US judge to three charges involving his role in the assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moise, court documents show.
Jaar, 50, is one of 11 defendants in the case, including a businessman accused of helping obtain vehicles and firearms from Florida and a former Colombian soldier accused of shooting Moise in his bedroom.
According to the US Department of Justice, Jaar is accused of helping to provide arms to the Colombians, who will also live in controlled housing, and to assist them while they are hiding from Haitian authorities.
He pleaded guilty in Miami to conspiring to provide material support, providing material support and conspiring to kidnap and kill Moise, according to court records.
Jaar was arrested in January 2022 in the Dominican Republic, which shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti. Sentencing is set for June 2 in Miami and he could face up to life in prison, court filings show.
While the murders took place in Haiti, prosecutors believe most of the planning and financing took place in South Florida. Authorities said the original plan to arrest Moise a week earlier and whisk him to an unidentified location by plane, but that fell through when the suspect could not find the plane or enough weapons.
Jaar was previously convicted of cocaine trafficking in 2013 and sentenced to four years and three months in prison.
Dozens have been arrested in Haiti, but the case has come to a virtual halt amid death threats that have made local judges.
Moise was shot 12 times at his private home near the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince, on July 7, 2021.
Moise’s killing has left a political vacuum in the Caribbean nation and rattled powerful gangs that now effectively control large parts of the country and the turf war has sparked a humanitarian crisis with at least 160,000 people displaced.
Jaar’s attorney declined to comment.
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