Port-au-Prince, Oct. 19 (EFE) – Joseph Felix Badio, who allegedly planned the assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moise in 2021, was arrested on Thursday in Port-au-Prince, the Haitian police informed EFE.
“He has been arrested,” was the brief confirmation given to EFE by the spokesman of the Haitian police, Commissioner Gary Desrosiers.
Badio, a former agent of the Anti-Corruption Unit, dismissed for serious ethical misconduct, was captured in the afternoon in a local supermarket in Pétion-ville, Port-au-Prince.
According to the investigation, he is one of the main suspects in the murder of Moise in July 2021, an assassination that he allegedly planned.
Badio was wanted by the Haitian National Police, which had issued a warrant for his arrest.
According to officials, Moise was tortured and murdered by a group of mercenaries, mostly Colombians, at his private residence in the Pétion-ville sector of the capital on July 7, 2021, an attack in which his wife, First Lady Martine Moise, was also injured.
Agents of the specialized units of the National Palace responsible for the security of the head of state were involved in the assassination.
Former Haitian President Michel Martelly appeared on October 3 to make a statement in connection with the case before Judge Walther Wesser Voltaire, who is investigating his successor’s assasination.
In June, a federal judge in Miami, Florida, sentenced Haitian-Chilean businessman Rodolphe Jaar to life in prison after he pleaded guilty in March to aiding the commando that killed Moise.
Haitian-Americans James Solages, Joseph Vincent and Christian Sanon are also in custody in the United States.
Retired Colombian military officer Germán Alejandro Rivera García is also accused of participating in the plot.
The Venezuelan-American Antonio Intriago, owner of a security company that recruited twenty former Colombian soldiers who attacked the house of the Haitian president on the night of the assassination, is also being held in connection with the case. EFE
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