Jamaica judge delays hearing for accused Moïse murder suspect as family requests asylum
The fate of an accused suspect and former politician in the murder of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse has once more been put on hold while authorities in Jamaica ponder whether to grant his wife and two children asylum.
Former Haitian Senator John Joël Joseph, who has been charged with illegal entry into Jamaica after he, his wife and two sons were arrested last month in rural St. Elizabeth parish, was told by a judge Tuesday to return to court on March 3. This is the second time that Joseph, whose travel documents list his last name as John, has had his case postponed.
During an initial appearance after his arrest, his case was pushed back to February 15 after his attorney, Donahue Martin, asked the court for more time.
On Tuesday, Martin confirmed to the Miami Herald that the matter had been remanded for March 3 after he confirmed to the court that he has filed an application to Jamaica’s Passport Immigration and Citizenship Agency (PICA) for refugee status on behalf of the former senator’s wife, Edume, 38, and sons Schopenhauer, 17, and Abaku, 9.
“They have a well-founded fear that if they are returned to Haiti they would be subjected to persecution and acts of violence,” Martin said.
Gaining refugee status in Jamaica is very rare. Jamaica’s Ministry of National Security will need to convene a committee, which will then determine if the three are eligible to remain in the country as refugees.
Martin would not comment on the status of John Joël Joseph, who is the subject of an arrest warrant in Haiti and was among several suspects at large when he and his family were arrested at a house by members of the Counter Terrorism & Organized Crime Unit and the St. Elizabeth divisional police.
U.S. authorities, however, have their eyes on Joseph and FBI agents have already started interviewing him, according to sources familiar with the case.
Haitian police allege that Joseph was in contact with several of the suspects jailed in connection with the assassination plot and attended meetings about the attack. A 124-page Haiti National Police investigative report obtained by the Herald also accused him of paying for the rental vehicles that were to be used in the assassination.
Joseph was the second key suspect in Moïse’s July 7 assassination to be taken into custody in Jamaica after arriving by boat and using a popular “Guns for Ganja” criminal route between Haiti’s southern coast and the country’s English-speaking Caribbean neighbor to escape authorities after months of hiding in Haiti.
In October, Mario Antonio Palacios Palacios, 43, a retired Colombian sergeant, was arrested in Kingston after being tracked there by U.S. Homeland Security Investigations agents. He had previously hidden in Haiti for months.
Palacios is currently in U.S. federal custody after being detained in Panama last month while on his way back to Colombia after a judge in Jamaica ordered his deportation.
This story was originally published February 15, 2022 at 4:01 PM.
