The widow of Haiti’s late President Jovenel Moïse — who was assassinated in his home in 2021 — was among more than 50 people indicted by a Haitian judge in connection to his murder.
Martine Moïse, who was shot and wounded in the July home invasion, was named in a 122-page report issued by Judge Walther Wesser Voltaire and is accused of complicity and criminal association.
Haiti’s former secretary general of the National Palace, Lyonel Valbrun, reportedly told officials that Martine Moïse laid out plans to succeed her husband just two days after his assassination, Judge Voltaire wrote in the indictment.
Valbrun said Martine Moïse called and allegedly said: “Jovenel didn’t do anything for us. You have to open the office. The president told Ti Klod [aka ex-prime minister Claude Joseph] to create a council of ministers; he will hold elections in three months so I can become president, now we will have power.”
Valbrun reportedly told officials that he was under “strong pressure” from Martine Moïse to place the president’s office at the disposal of Joseph as he needed to “organize a council of ministers,” Judge Voltaire wrote in the indictment.
The former first lady also had numerous inconsistencies in her account of what happened the night her husband, 53, was killed, including that she hid under their bed when the intruders entered, according to the document.
But investigators at the scene claimed not “even a giant rat…whose size measures between 35 and 45 centimeters” would be able to squeeze under the bed.
Voltaire said Martine Moïse’s statements about the attack were “so tainted with contradictions that they leave something to be desired and discredit her.”
She also raised suspicion when she removed “a bunch of things” from the National Palace late at night, between 10 p.m. and 3 a.m., two days before the president was killed, Valbrun said.
However, the indictment fails to provide any direct evidence of Martine Moïse’s involvement in her husband’s murder or its planning.
Joseph, the ex-prime minister, was also indicted — along with former chief of Haiti’s National Police, Léon Charles, who faces the most severe charges including murder and attempted murder.
Many of the accused have claimed that Haiti’s current Prime Minister Ariel Henry is using the court as a political weapon to prosecute his opponents.
“Henry … is weaponizing the Haitian justice system, prosecuting political opponents like me. It’s a classic coup d’état,” Joseph told the Associated Press. “They failed to kill me and Martine Moïse on July 7th 2021, now they are using the Haitian justice system to advance their Machiavellian agenda.”
The prime minister has denied the accusations.
Martine Moïse’s lawyer Paul Turner could not be immediately reached for comment, but in the past he has denied allegations that his client was involved in her husband’s murder.
“She was a victim, just like her children that were there, and her husband,” he previously told the New York Times.
Martine Moïse is reportedly in hiding, though she’s expected to be called as a witness in a separate case on her husband’s murder ongoing in the US, according to the newspaper.
The investigation into Jovenel Moïse’s murder based in Florida has seen 11 men charged with conspiring to assassinate the president. Six have pleaded guilty, while the other five will go to trial in May, the Times reported.
Haiti has been shrouded in unrest and violence since the assassination as gangs have risen in power while the country remains without a president or other elected official at the national level.
With Post wires
