Widow of assassinated Haitian president accused of being accomplice because she wanted power

By Leonardo Blair, Senior Reporter Thursday, February 22, 2024

Martine Moïse speaks during the funeral for her husband, slain Haitian President Jovenel Moïse, on July 23, 2021, in Cap-Haitien, Haiti, the main city in his native northern region. Moïse, 53, was shot dead in his home in the early hours of July 7. | VALERIE BAERISWYL/AFP via Getty Images

Martine Moïse, the widow of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse who was assassinated in July 2021, is among 51 people indicted by a Haitian judge for allegedly being an accomplice to her late husband’s murder. It's alleged that the widow had expressed a desire to become president of the troubled Caribbean nation just days after he was killed.

In addition to the former Haitian first lady, the 122-page copy of the indictment by Judge Walther Voltaire, first published by Haitian website AyiboPost, also names people like former Prime Minister Claude Joseph, The Haitian Times said.

“There are concordant charges and sufficient evidence likely to justify their responsibility for the acts attributed to them,” Voltaire said in his order. “It is ordered that [these individuals] be apprehended and incarcerated at the civil prison of Port-au-Prince, if they are not already there.”

Martine Moïse, who has three children with her late husband, is now residing in the U.S. in an undisclosed location.

In response to the allegations, Paul Turner, her attorney based in South Florida, previously told The Haitian Times that she was also a victim in the assassination.

“She was a victim, just like her children that were there, and her husband,” he told The Times.

Voltaire said his decision to formally charge Martine Moïse was based on statements she made to Lyonel Valbrun, then-secretary-general of the National Palace.

Valbrun alleged that two days before the president was assassinated, Martine Moïse took a stash of items from the National Palace and Voltaire did not see this as a random move. Valbrun further noted that two days after the Haitian president was assassinated, the former first lady told him she wanted to be president.

“Jovenel has done nothing for us. You must open the president’s offices for Ti Klod [Claude Joseph] to organize a council of ministers. He will have to organize elections in the next three months so that I become president, that is now that we will have power,” she allegedly said in Haitian Creole.

Joseph Badio, a former official in the Haitian Justice Ministry, who is also accused of being an accomplice to the assassination, said Martine Moïse was plotting with others, including Claude Joseph, to get rid of her husband “to monopolize power.”

The late president’s widow is expected to be a witness in his murder trial against 11 men who have been accused of conspiring to kill him as part of a U.S. investigation in Miami. Six of the men have already pleaded guilty, while five will go on trial in May.

Some critics of the indictment have argued that the indictment against her and others is a political move by Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry to get back at his critics but, Jean-Junior Joseph, a spokesman for Henry denied the allegations to The Times.

“The Prime Minister has no direct relationship with the examining magistrate, nor does he control him,” Joseph said. “The judge remains free to issue his order in accordance with the law and his conscience.”

Jovenel Moïse was assassinated and his wife injured just months after religious leaders called on him to step down as the country faced what some described as a “descent into hell” amid rising political tensions and violence. He was 53.

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