Miami trial resumes in case linked to Haiti president’s assassination
Christian Emmanuel Sanon is due to face trial in Miami over alleged involvement in the 2021 assassination plot against Haitian President Jovenel Moïse. US prosecutors have charged more than 40 people in related cases, while Haiti’s own investigations have struggled amid judicial resignations and gang control.
A Miami trial involving Christian Emmanuel Sanon, a Florida pastor and dual Haitian-American citizen, is due to begin five years after Haitian President Jovenel Moïse was assassinated. Sanon faces eight charges connected to the killing, including conspiring to kidnap or kill a person outside the United States. He has pleaded not guilty.
Prosecutors allege he helped raise money, arrange travel to Haiti and secure accommodation for people involved in the plot. US prosecutors have charged more than 40 people in cases related to Moïse’s assassination, and 12 have been convicted, including five serving life sentences. Sanon’s trial was separated from an earlier case and delayed for health reasons.
Moïse was killed on July 7, 2021, when about two dozen foreign mercenaries, mostly Colombians, attacked his home near Port-au-Prince. His wife, Martine Moïse, was wounded. Prosecutors say South Florida was a central location for planning and financing the operation.
The alleged scheme was initially intended to remove Moïse and install Sanon, who authorities said aspired to become president. By June 2021, conspirators concluded that he lacked the constitutional qualifications and popular support for the role, according to the indictment cited in the source material. The group then backed Wendelle Coq Thélot, a former Haitian Superior Court judge who died in January 2025 while still a fugitive.
Prosecutors also allege that money from US pandemic business-support programmes was used to pay mercenaries. Haiti has requested assistance from the United States and Canada after a local appeals court ordered another investigation. Earlier inquiries stalled after judges resigned over safety fears, while gangs took control of the Port-au-Prince courthouse.
The country continues to face severe insecurity. The source material says more than 3,000 people were killed by June this year and about 1.5 million have been displaced in recent years, according to the United Nations. The latest defendants include Joseph Badio, a former Haitian Ministry of Justice employee, and 17 people described as Colombian mercenaries who were transported to the United States from Haiti.
This independently written report is based on information supplied by the named publisher. Vertrix News has not independently verified the source report.