Ex-Haitian senator sentenced to life in prison over president’s assassination

Then-Haitian Senator Joseph Joel John speaks in Port-au-Prince

(Reuters) – Former Haitian Senator John Joel Joseph was on Tuesday sentenced in a Miami court to life in prison over his role in the July 2021 assassination of Haiti’s last president, Jovenel Moise.

The nighttime killing of Moise in his Port-au-Prince residence created a destabilizing power vacuum which violent armed gangs exploited to expand their control over the island nation, driving a catastrophic humanitarian crisis.

(Reporting by Sarah Morland in Mexico City and Harold Isaac in Port-au-Prince; Editing by Kylie Madry)