Former US informant sentenced to life in prison in connection to Haitian president’s assassination

A former U.S. informant who pleaded guilty to charges related to the 2021 assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse was sentenced to life in prison on Friday. 

Multiple news outlets reported that 51-year-old Rodolphe Jarr, a dual Haitian-Chilean citizen, is the first to be sentenced from a plot to kill Moïse, who had served as president since 2017. 

Jarr pleaded guilty in March in U.S. federal court in Miami to charges of conspiring to provide material support, providing material support and conspiring to kidnap and kill Moïse. Ten other defendants have been charged in the United States in relation to the assassination, while dozens have been arrested in Haiti. 

U.S. District Judge José Martínez gave Jarr the maximum sentence after a 10-minute hearing, according to The Associated Press. 

Prosecutors have said they believe most of the planning for the assassination happened in South Florida. Those originally involved in the scheme had planned to kidnap Moïse and bring him to an unidentified location by plane, but they could not find a plane or the weapons needed to carry out the plan, according to records.

Officials have alleged that the perpetrators wanted to win contracts under Moïse’s successor. 

Court documents state that Jarr provided weapons, food and lodging for Colombian soldiers and others involved in the plot. He agreed to help federal prosecutors build their case against the other defendants. 

Jarr has the right to appeal the sentence for up to two weeks, and his attorney said he has not decided whether he will appeal, AP reported. 

He was previously convicted of drug trafficking in 2013 and sentenced to more than four years in prison. Jarr was also detained in the Dominican Republic last year for the charges for Moïse’s assassination. 

Moïse was shot 12 times at his home in the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince. His death pushed the poverty-stricken country into further turmoil with gangs gaining more territory in a power vacuum. 

The number of killings, rapes and kidnappings have also spiked since then. 

The Associated Press contributed to this report.